Steven Lisberger, Live Planet films and Phenomenal-ness!

The rumor mill is grinding away and although pre-production on the film is continuing very little confirmed information is coming out. One source from inside production is quoted, "...unfortunately I am not allowed to disclose ANY information about the project. All I can say is that its going to be phenomenal." Not exactly huge news but it does mean that the design of the film is going forward.

Another source has said Live Planet Films, owned by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, is involved in pre-production of TR2N. The creative force behind Oscar winner Good Will Hunting and critically acclaimed Gone Baby Gone would add mainstream credibility to the production and may help shed the TRON franchise of it's "geek" reputation. Live Planet was also the production company on Project Greenlight, so pushing the creative envelope is nothing new. Hopefully their involvement will be limited to plot and practical design and they'll leave the more technical aspects to the seasoned professionals.

Finally, Tom's Games had a conversation with Steven Lisberger as a follow up to his comments last week that were posted on Aint It Cool News regarding the level of his involvement in the production.

TOM'S GAMES: We weren't sure if you were involved on the film until the AICN story.

STEVE LISBERGER: I talked to Harry [Knowles] just because I wanted to correct the record. It wasn't a situation where it was like, Okay it's time to really start talking about everything. It's just confirming that I was involved, things were progressing and we're all working on it.

TG: So you are working on the film, then? You had told us a while back that you and Disney had been playing around with the idea for years.

LISBERGER: Yes. It's been a long road of development, and I have been involved. It's been going on since 2000. It's gone through various stages, but there is sort of a through line all the things we've tried and attempted and contributed one way or another. Now we have a really great group of people involved, and the studio's very enthusiastic. Our executive at Disney even has the old Tron arcade game in his office. You can't do better than that.

TG: So what has the process been like?

LISBERGER: Things have ebbed and flowed on the project over the years, and that's what happened. This has been ongoing now for sometime, and it's been sort of under the radar. I think it's best that it was under the radar. It's better for the people involved to focus on the work than reading about the publicity.

TG: The Comic-Con teaser took everyone by surprise.

LISBERGER: Yeah, there you go. The miracle of modern technology did not root it out.

TG: So where does "Tron 2" stand now? What are you personally up to?

LISBERGER: How do I put this? it's been a long time since the first film was made, so we're all re-examining the first film together. That's an ongoing process. It's great to be working with Jeff [Bridges] again. He's gotten nothing but better over the years, so that's been a lot of fun.

TG: What will it be like revisiting a movie that came out more than 25 years ago?

LISBERGER: I'm sure there's going to be quite a few people working on the film that were born after it was made, which is a startling thing! It has a unique place in my life, and it's interesting to revisit that.

Is that a CLU in the trailer?

The image of the yellow emblazoned warrior in the TR2N trailer standing over his defeated opponent and showing no mercy has created a great deal debate in various places on the net with everyone voicing their opinion of what "Not anymore." means. Although many of the theories are intriguing I'm leaning towards the possibility that we are overlooking a very likely scenario by trying to impose our own will as fans onto what we hope the film will be.

The general consensus is that the program is CLU, or a perhaps a newer version of CLU that has been corrupted by the same virus that was the macguffin in the TRON 2.0 game. The yellow/green glow of his uniform and his viciousness seem to lend credence to this theory except that the virus would attempt to spread itself if given the chance, not destroy another program.

Another theory holds that since CLU had been absorbed by the MCP he retained part of the MCP's motives and would carry out orders that had been imprinted on him during his imprisonment. A rather large assumption is made here that the programs the MCP took over are released back into the system after it was destroyed, but if that was true then the climactic moment of TRON getting his disc into the center of the MCP just before Dumont is derezzed is pointless. It's far more likely that if the MCP was to absorb and derezz a program, that program would be lost forever.

Still others are stating that it's a reloaded version of CLU that FLYNN put back into the system after being released. This one makes little sense to me because Flynn wrote the CLU program to search for evidence of his creation of the video games Dillinger has based his fortune on. Therefore, the program is no longer needed as Flynn is now the owner of the company and would have no reason to reinsert the program to search for anymore hidden information.

All of these ideas are based on a premise that the movie sequel will follow after the storyline of the video game but with the lack of sales that the game had the film makers just might ignore its mythology and jump directly to a newly imagined reality.

So, at this point the prudent thing is to ask yourself one question. How many tank programs did Flynn write?

Many.

CLU was not Flynn's the first tank operator program and was only the last attempt he made before he was digitized into the system, and it would have been foolish of the MCP to have destroyed or absorbed all of the trained tank drivers he had captured. In the original movie, SARK offers the captured blue programs a chance to change sides and become defenders of the MCP. Many of the early versions of the CLU program may have crossed over. The fact that the drivers weren't very accurate in their shooting could have been a result of the less developed version of the operating software.

After the MCP was destroyed, were the traitors derezzed? Probably not. The system was now supposed to be free and all programs would most likely have been able to operate unhindered by for the most part, but Flynn would still be in charge of them. The CLU programs were written to be information seekers and in that function Flynn may have used them as a "police" force, or a version of an antiviral program. The resulting dictatorship could have left Flynn in power but as a user he would have just been a figurehead to where the real power would have been: with the CLU programs themselves. With no real power over the CLU programs, Flynn would only be able to stand idly by and watch the system he had risked his life to save fall apart.

Jeff Bridges confirms TR2N!

JeffBridges.com now confirms that he will be shooting TRON 2 sometime in 2009. The Nicky Says section of his website was updated at the end of July confirming his involvement.

"July, 2008

It's been a while since I've updated this so here's an attempt. Jeff is currently in deep prep mode for Crazy Heart and Tron2, which is being written and will film some time next year."

That should dispel any rumors that he was only in the trailer and may not be involved in the movie.

The Rumors of my Derezzing Have Been Greatly Exagerated

Go away from my computer for a day and look what happens, I'm proven right for a change and I can't brag about it.

Aintitcool News has a new article up with an interview featuring none other than Steven Lisberger himself discussing the recent news (sic) that he isn't involved with the production of the sequel. The email that Harry was good enough to share made things very clear:

Hey Harry- Jim Hill’s piece on Tr2n sounds very dramatic but actually we are trying to put all the drama into the script. I can assure you I am very much involved with Tr2n. It’s a collaborative effort just like the first film was. We have a very talented and dedicated young group and I am doing my best to inspire them as much as they are inspiring me. The trailer, as amazing as it is, is only the beginning. All the best, Steven Lisberger

Lisberger said during a subsequent phone call that he is doing all that his producer credit will allow to make the best film he can. Nice to see they won't be wasting the genius that envisioned the world we love and it seems that my hopes of a collaborative effort have been heard by the gods, all 12 of them (sorry Baltar). For the most part, everyone with the knowhow to get TR2N to the position it needs to be are in place.

The only real variable to be at all concerned with now is the script. Kitsis & Horovitz are still rumored to be doing the writing and Lisberger's original script is not being used at all. I have to admit that I feel this may be the best way to go. Even Walt Disney, arguably the greatest imagineer of the last 100 years used other men to write the words and create the stories for the characters that lived in the worlds he created. As a wanna-be film maker myself I know first hand that although I have the ability to make dialog come to life on paper, it may take someone else to make the words come to life on celluloid.

I'm glad Lisberger is the man we all thought he was, intelligent enough not only to dream of a world we could all climb into like a bubbling jacuzzi but wise enough to let others show him how to turn on the jets of water to get the whole thing bubbling with energy.

Lasseter Derezzes Lisberger?

Like most fanboys eagerly waiting for the teaser to be released by Disney I've been scouring the net in search of news about the movie. While some of the articles I've found have credible sources most are just rehashed versions of the same thing someone else wrote, they're outright fabrications or a combination of the two.

Jim Hill has posted a couple of articles about the movie but a source has informed me that his most recent one contains a fairly large amount of that which is expelled from male cows rectums.

The fact that John Lasseter would be interested in being involved in a TR2N production is no secret to any of the TRON fans that have been following the quest of Steven Lisberger to get a sequel made. Lasseter has been a fan of the original film since it's 1982 release and has referred to it as being what he was waiting his whole life for.

"...in 1980 or 1981 I saw some video of the very beginnings of computer animation, and it was like a revelation. I wasn't really looking for them but just came across some tapes from one of these new computer-graphics conferences. When I saw this stuff I thought, Wow, this is cool. Even though it was just spheres floating around and stuff like that.

Around that time Disney made a deal to do a live-action movie called "Tron," with some computerized special effects. I didn't work on it, but some friends did, and I saw the very first dailies, and what I saw - the potential I saw - blew me away. Walt Disney had always tried to get more dimension in his animation and when I saw these tapes, I thought, This is it! This is what Walt was waiting for! But when I looked around, nobody at the studio at the time was even halfway interested in it." ------CNN.COM May 15, 2006

The possibility of Lasseter not being involved in a Disney production inspired by the film is just not realistic, especially if you consider the point that it would be PIXAR's first real foray into the fusion of high quality computer animation and live action. Hill's declaration of Lasseter's involvement is therefore a blatantly obvious point.

Hill's assertion that Lisberger will have no real creative involvement in the production may not be accurate however as the word that I hear is that it's just not true.

I eagerly await confirmation in one form or another as to which story is true and which isn't. I can say from my point of view that a true collaberation of both Lisberger and Lasseter in dual executive production roles would create the most favorable scenario.

Engage Mr. Crusher

In completely unrelated news (although he still hasn't let me know if he got to see the teaser at CC) happy birthday to the most unnecessarily hated individual in all of sci-fi history, Wil Wheaton.

Most famous as an actor, Wil has made a name for himself in the geek world for his self-detrementing blog about being a geek and being a "used to be" actor. He's one of my favorite reads on the net for making being a geek not quite so geeky and showing what it's like to be a geek who found a woman that will put up with one. They may be hope for the rest of us after all.

Oh, and did I mention he doesn't like Jack Thompson??





So happy birthday Wil. I'll always hate you for kissing Robin Lefler and Salia and love you for it at the same time. Check out his blog, and wish him a happy birthday while you're there.

Another blog that has popped up has posted this picture asking if it's the new poster. I can't see any difference between this poster and the ones that came out after the first Cloverfield trailer came out. As far as I'm concerned it's someone trying to capitalize on the rumors in an attempt to sell off the domain he bought, but I'll post it here all the same and let you decide for yourselves.