Image Credit: DisneyJoe Kosinski’s Tron: Legacy is getting a little help from above. EW.com has learned that the CG-extravaganza due out at the end of the year received some key input from some very brilliant filmmakers, mainly the elite brain trust at Pixar in Northern California. In late March, the Tron filmmakers chose to show a very early working cut of the film starring Garrett Hedlund and Jeff Bridges to Pixar’s John Lasseter, Ed Catmull, The Incredibles director Brad Bird, Toy Story 3 screenwriter Michael Arndt, and others. The one-day exercise was done in advance of some planned re-shoots scheduled for June with the intent of beefing up the very things that Pixar is so good at: character, emotion, and theme.
Following the screening — and other viewings with various live-action filmmakers in Los Angeles — Disney hired Arndt and Bird to write some pages for the upcoming re-shoots, which lasted six days last month. Original writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (Lost) were also integral in the writing at this time. “Tron is very much Joe Kosinski’s vision, a vision which is thrilling to me and I hope is thrilling to the fans,” said Sean Bailey, Disney’s president of production. “What I give Joe and the filmmaking team immense credit for, is this was all born out of how do we give the fans the best movie we can. We were very fortunate that Pixar wanted to play a part in it.”
So is this inter-studio collaboration a sign of things to come for Disney, under the new regime of studio head Rich Ross and Bailey? The answer seems to be yes. With Disney now essentially an umbrella company for not only Pixar but Marvel and Dreamworks Studios too, it makes a lot of sense. And Bailey, who was first a producer on Tron before being hired by Disney in January, is certainly encouraged by the positive experience of working with those famed filmmakers up north. “Certainly being able to have an open dialogue with our formidable partners in Pixar, Marvel, and Dreamworks is really interesting to me.”
Tron: Legacy will bow on Dec. 17.
Wow, this is GREAT news. The people at Pixar are incredible. Can’t wait for Comic Con & the TRON Legacy panel. Hoping that Cindy Morgan (Lora Baines Bradley/Yori) is included as a special guest since she’s already attending Comic Con and is Alan Bradley’s (TRON) wife in the TRON universe!
Tron Legacy looks INSANELY good! I predict that it will be a critical darling and will make mad money at the box office.
Wow! I didn’t think that my excitement for this movie could get any stronger, but it just did! A Geekgasm could be imminent!
Lasseter worked at Disney animation when the original Tron was being developed — Tron was one of his first exposures to computer animation and it’s potential. Though he didn’t work on the film, I imagine he has a very special interest in it’s Legacy, so to speak, and only good things will come of Lasseter and Pixar’s involvement.
I can’t stand it when the ad on the right pops up over the text and won’t go away.
Thank you!! I can’t stand it either!!
try to click close…may help
Sometimes it won’t let you close it smartass.
beef it up baby!!!
Good and bad. Good in that they are looking for the help. They did something similar on Meet the Robinsons, pulling with John Lasseter in to review and revise and that came out OK. It’s bad in that you only do go for help and only ever reshoot if you really really need to. First cut must have been terrible.
Not true. Most big budget movies do reshoots these days. It’s an exercise in fine-tuning, and can result in a stronger movie. That being said, too much reshooting can be a sign of problems. However, with the original director and writers on board (and for only 6 days), this really doesn’t say much of anything, good or bad.
That being said, Brad Bird is my hero. It tickles me that he was involved with the movie that I have been looking forward to for the last year and a half.
good point. however, considering the level of control disney has given the director and his team despite the enormous budget, it make sense that a project whose subject deals with the rather unemotional world of computers and a large amount of visual effects, that they would want to insure the emotional core of the story was clearly represented. i believe they consulted the right people considering this.
cheers!
Chris is right, reshoots are incredibly common these days (hell, most Oscar-winning movies even have reshoots). It’s a normal process, and is pretty much standard when dealing with CG-laden action adventures. We’d have to be worried if the reshoots took a while (i.e. a month). Six days is nothing.
Reshoots of action shots or such make sense. This is reshooting to add character development and emotion at the last minute. Which means that for YEARS this project didn’t have the most crucial element figured out. And now they will slap some in at the last second. Uncool. At least it’s Brad Bird helping…
@ Whhaaaat??? Overeacting much.
@Whhaaaat??? When you consider how many films make it out the door and on to the screen devoid of character development or emotion, I can’t see why this would be anything but a good move. I mean, this isn’t “The English Patient” or something; It’s “Tron”. You throw in some lightcycles and fling the neon Frisbee around, and the CGI carries the film to decent box office. The fact that they’re going back to punch up the characters and emotional beats suggests that they actually want the film to at least try to be more than an effectsgasm. And they got some of the writers who best know how to humanize computers to humanize their computer film. Sounds pretty hopeful all the way around for me.
as someone actually old enough to have been in love with the original Tron, I can’t wait for this new movie. Bringing in the Pixar god’s is a smart move. Brad Bird is a true creative genius, and can do nothing but add to the overall quality of the new Tron movie. I hope we get a snazzy new release of Tron on blu ray. Of course by today’s standard’s the computer graphics are child like, yet the movie is still great. Man thanks to Disney for bringing back one of my favorite films of all time. weeeee.
Heard Daft Punk was producing the score to this! Another reason why this movie will be fantastic!!
Honestly I am so excited for the soundtrack to this..I think even more so than the movie.
I agree Lanny!
what the world needs now, is French Techno. It makes Tron a movie that i’ll see and go. (yeah Daft Punk)
Nice Disney. For the multi-studio collaboration on this; especially Pixar. If they can make a almost mute film a modern benchmark in silent film, certainly they can only add to it. A lot better than the junk that was coming out of Disney a decade a go (direct-to-home abundance) I already pre-ordered the soundtrack and heightened my curiosity to see the movie just because of Daft Punk. Stoked.
Now that the movie is getting re-done. I want a new game, too!!!
I would love to see how newer systems handle the light-cycles, or… even better yet, “The discs of Tron for Wii!!! now that would be sweeeeeeet
There is a game coming out. “Tron Evolution” for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii.
This movie is going to be so cool!
This “exclusive” news was exclusive last week.
Uh oh. Sounds like the original writers screwed up. Sounding more and more like this is going to be more of a miss than hit.
How is Dreamworks under the umbrella of Disney?
Dreamworks signed a 30-picture distribution deal with Disney last year. It’s for their live-action films and not Dreamworks Animation pictures, which is still distributed by Paramount.
Ah, thanks a lot!
I know where I’ll be on Christmas night!
I think its great that they wanted a second opinion from pixar that way it wont suck and be a huge disappointment to Tron fans
Kosinski’s a talented director with a distinct visual style, but I’ve never seen anything he’s done that has any element of emotion at all. Perhaps hiring a commercial director known for his emotionless visuals to create a film about a largely emotionless, visual world didn’t make as much sense as it seemed on paper.
Uh-oh.
They are shoe-horning in the character development and emotion at the last minute?
And the THEME? They didn’t know they needed a THEME for the film they developed for years?
And I had such high hopes for this film.
Transformers III, anyone?