After several attempts to resurrect the franchise, Disney is finally accelerating things forward with the announcement of the new Tron movie. The new film is said to be titled Tron Ares.
The movie, released in 1982, was directed by Steven Lisberger and starred Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, Bruce Boxleitner as Alan Bradley, David Warner as Ed Dillinger, Cindy Morgan as Dr. Lora Baines, Barnard Hughes as Dr. Walter Gibbs, and many more.
The sequel was released 28 years later, in 2010, and was titled Tron: Legacy. It was directed by Joseph Kosinski and featured Garrett Hedlund as Samuel "Sam" Flynn, Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, Olivia Wilde as Quorra, Bruce Boxleitner as Alan Bradley, and Michael Sheen as Zuse / Castor.
The new film is titled Tron Ares and will star Jared Leto
Production for the new film is expected to begin later this year in August in Vancouver, Canada, with Jesse Wigutow penning the screenplay. Along with producing the film with Justin Springer, Jeffrey Silver, and Emma Ludbrook, Jared Leto will play the lead role.
Sean Bailey and Sam Dickerman will be on executive production duties. There has been no revelation about its plot or cast. Norwegian director Joachim Rønning will be directing the movie. He frequently works with a filmmaker by the name of Espen Sandberg.
Rønning and Sandberg co-directed Bandidas, Max Manus: Man of War, Kon-Tiki, Marco Polo, and the Johnny Depp starter Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Some of Rønning's solo projects are Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and, Young Woman and the Sea (currently in post-production).
The director of Lion, Garth Davis, was initially supposed to direct the upcoming film but unfortunately parted ways with the project. Joseph Kosinski, who directed the second part of the movie, spoke to Vulture last year about how he had written and storyboarded a sequel. In 2015, he intended to move forward with it, but nothing happened.
He said:
"When I made ‘Tron: Legacy,’ they didn’t own Marvel; they didn’t own ‘Star Wars. We were the play for fantasy and science fiction. And once you’ve got those other things under your umbrella."
He continued:
"It makes sense that you’re going to put your money into a known property and not the weird art student with black fingernails in the corner — that was ‘Tron.’ And that’s okay."
Disney is preparing for the franchise's entry into Disney World with the debut of Tron Lightcycle Power Run, a high-speed roller coaster that will open in Spring 2023.
What is the original Tron about?
The 1982 film follows a former programmer and video game developer named Kevin Flynn, who is beamed into the ENCOM mainframe via a digitizing laser by the Master Control Program. ENCOM is a computer corporation where Flynn previously worked.
Here is the synopsis of the film, according to IMDB:
"A computer hacker is abducted into the digital world and forced to participate in gladiatorial games where his only chance of escape is with the help of a heroic security program."
Donald Kushner produced it, and Steven Lisberger was the director. Walt Disney Productions and Lisberger-Kushner Productions are listed as the film's authorized producers, while Wendy Carlos is given credit for the music. With a 96-minute run duration, it was able to bring in $50 million globally.