Disney Plans Tron Remake

blkmagic writes "Sci Fi Wire is reporting that Disney will remake Tron. The original article was in Variety, but requires a pay subscription, unless you want to sign up for a 14-day free trial. The article didn't mention what stage they're at, but sounds like they're changing the story a bit (surprise). I loved the original when I was younger (and still watch it again once in a while), so I don't know how I feel about this one!"

I hope the graphics are low-tech cool

[tinrobot]

I loved Tron because they used really good design to overcome the extremely low-tech tools they had at their disposal. The result was a "inside the computer" world that looked computer-like.

Now we have movies like The Matrix, where they go inside a computer and it looks like San Francisco.

I hope the new Tron remake doesn't got too overboard and make things look too 'realistic.' I'm kind of sick of CGI that looks real. I have real every day.

Just Make a Reboot Movie

[Erioll]

Reboot [reboot.com] was a more "fun" idea of computers. Should just make THAT into a movie, rather than spoiling an old classic.

I liked tron, but I can't see how they'll retain the "feel" of the original. I won't say it's impossible, but it just seems like they're setting people up for disappointment.

Erioll

Syd Mead

[payndz]

Just hope they keep Syd Mead's designs for all the original vehicles, or better yet, just hire the man himself to do updates. Mead's stuff rocks.

It won't be Tron without light cycles, Recognizers and those nifty asymetric tanks!

Tron 2.0 the MOVIE

[darkCanuck]

I'm confused. Hollywood Stock Exchange has been selling Tron 2.0 stock [hsx.com] since September '99.

That's 2.0, not a remake.

They claim the director of Tron is writing the screenplay.

I really hope the HSX is right. Especially since I bought 50,000 shares @ $4.29.

Re:Tron

[MalachiConstant]

Bzzt. It was short for elecTRONic. The filmakers didn't find out till later that it was also a real computer term.

Yah, they should do Logan's Run

[agent]

Yah, they should do Logan's Run
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074812/
Did APC samples images for one their videos?
http://www.aperfectcircle.com/
Peace.
- Yoshimi (employee 0)
http://www.downhillbattle.org/

Re:I know what you're thinking

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone know whether he's mentioned whether or not he'd do something like that from past interviews?

I highly doubt anyone has mentioned this movie to Jeff Bridges in an interview in years. Hoping he still talks about this movie certainly cements the word "cult" in this movie's "cult-like following".

Interviewer in early 1980's: Jeff, would you ever think about reprising your role of Kevin Flynn in a remake of "Tron"?

Bridges: *blinks* We just made that movie. Maybe I don't understand your question.

Re:Enough with the remakes already!

[Blakey Rat]

They did make a sequel. Tron 2.0 is a video game... a quite good one, too. As far as the game's box and manual said, the video game *is* the official sanctioned sequel to the Tron movie.

the other mouse

[Doc Ruby]

I was at the biggest computer graphics lab in the world (NYIT/Westbury) at the time Tron was announced, instantly making us #2. Though Disney produced only a few cumulative minutes of digital FX for the movie, they launched the "CGI" industry which has served them so well since. I'd love to see them repeat that watershed event. Let's see them do something in distributed rendering that puts Toy Story back in its box. Or a revolution in the front end for animators communicating with the machines, HCI that makes the mouse, and even the stylus/tablet, look like a 20th Century relic. C'mon, Mickey, let's get it on!

Yeah - MST3K Material

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

But, if there's a new one, I want to be the first to make a costume! [tronguy.net]

BTW: Great job, [livejournal.com] guys.

Re:Yay for Disney, you rock!

[Robotech_Master]

Disney has long remade its movies, even those movies that are considered classics in the original version. The Parent Trap. The Love Bug. The Shaggy Dog. 101 Dalmations. And they've made schlocky sequels to many more. This doesn't really come as much of a surprise to me. I don't think anybody's had an original idea at Walt Disney for the last twenty years or so.

Tron + LSD = Weird

[HouseOfMisterE]

The first time that I saw Tron, I was on four hits of acid, the movie was recorded on a tape at LP (4 hour) speed, and the VCR only played SP (2 hour) speed. That was a crazy night...

Re:Tron was crap.

[DLWormwood]

Tron was a movie about religion and just used the setting of inside a computer as a device to tell the story. It can basically be described as a tale of the coming of Jesus.

You've nailed the underlying metaphor of the movie (the champion or messiah myth) almost spot on. There was a novelization of the movie released at that time that included more explict content related to the programs' religion. The only real difference between the user/program relationship and the god/worshipper relationship in Christianity is that Tron's world is explictly polytheistic. As such, a user is more of a "guardian angel" than a "god." This is actually closer to older forms of Judism that existed prior to Zorastranism, the ancient faith that heavily influenced the Christian duality of good and evil.

Due to budgetary and technical constraints, the day-to-day life of programs in the Tron universe was only touched upon. The "live ones" that Flynn met in an online "city" was supposed to suggest the idea of a full-blown cyberciviliation that mirrored our own. The movie's producers even shot a bedroom love scene that had to be left out because it felt out of place given the superficial pacing of how the movie ended up. Also, the "derez" concept originally wasn't supposed to represent death per se, but resource deprevation, as the MCP drew most of the system's resources. Most programs had to do without energy and subroutines under the enforced "rationing." Flynn's absorbing of "red" energy from a warrior elite and the lighting up of the cyberworld at the very end of the film were a couple of the things remaining in the movie from this original concept.

I better stop now; my geekiness over this movie is starting to frighten me.