With everyone going ga-ga over the Comic-Con footage for “Tron: Legacy,” debut director Joseph Kosinski is in a pretty good place right now. He’s already signed up to direct a remake of weirdo kids flick “The Black Hole” for Disney, and is developing the sci-fi actioner “Archangels” at New Regency.
News broke a few weeks ago that the helmer was shopping a project named “Oblivion” around town and was keen to set it up as his next film, barring the possibility of another “Tron” movie. Kosinski initially sold the story as a graphic novel — which will be published later in the year by Random House no less — but had been pitching a movie adaptation around town recently.
The plot takes place in a future where the Earth is a wasteland, abandoned by humans who live far above the surface. A man with a maintenance job on the surface rescues a beautiful woman who’s crashed on the planet, and the pair embark on a life-changing adventure, falling in love along the way. Umm, we don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, but didn’t Pixar do that one a couple of years back?…
We’re being a little facetious here, clearly — the logline also includes mention of a warring alien race that was nowhere to be found in “Wall-E,” and this probably fits the post-“Avatar” mindset of studio executives. Indeed, a bidding war for the project has kicked off in recent days, with Paramount, Universal and Chernin Entertainment (“Rise of the Apes”), who are based at Fox, all in the running. But Deadline are reporting that Disney are closest to making a deal, which makes sense, as Kosinski seems to be the studio’s golden boy right now.
Maybe it’s because he has no affection for the original, but this writer feels curiously out in the cold on the “Tron” sequel, and still isn’t convinced it’ll be the mammoth hit everyone else is expecting. The ad campaign seems too focused on the original, which doesn’t mean an awful lot to the kids these days. But even if it tanks, Kosinski’s clearly on his way up, and we imagine this’ll become a priority quickly at Disney, or whichever studio it lands at.
Yeah agree on the "Tron" uberhype. Not sold on the story or the lead guy. Seems to come from the "poor man's Sam Worthington dull guy" school of (re)acting.
Original was a crap movie (and a flop) with some cool visuals back in the day but WAAAYYY overrated and remembered with rose colored glasses like much of the 80's kid flicks ("Lost Boys", "Goonies" et al).
Go back and look at them now and they're really not very good movies. Unlike true classics of the same time frame ("Empire", "Raiders", "Khan"), "Tron" and their ilk certainly haven't aged well except with the mouthbreathing basement dwelling dweeby geek losers (aka the Comic con audience). Having that rabid audience doesn't guarantee a box office hit (just ask Kevin Smith or the makers of "Kick Ass").
The 3D and cool new visuals for "Tron World" (through frankly, the day glo blue/orange neon looks cool in a 2 minute trailer but I suspect will get boring quickly in the full length movie…it all starts to look the same after 10 minutes), plus the full court press 2 year long marketing blitz will probably make it a hit.
Not excited about this. Only thing that seem truly cool is the Daft Punk soundtrack.
There are people who think the Tron movie will be a hit?