The highly desiredTron 3has taken a crucial step closer to coming to fruition, with director Garth Davis now being tapped to helm the sequel. Davis has become well renowned for much smaller, indie projects, particularly 2018’sMary Magdalenestarring Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix, and 2016’s Academy award-nominatedLionstarring Dev Patel.
Garth Daviswould certainly be an interesting choice to take on the sci-fi franchise, and, considering that he would be partnering up with Oscar-winning actorJared Leto,Tron 3has suddenly become a very promising prospect indeed. Reportedly, Davis aggressively fought for the job, eventually convincing Disney execs to give him the chance to bring his vision of the neon tech world to life.
Thelatest version of the Tron 3 scriptwas written by Jesse Wigutow (who has also been working on a reboot ofThe Crowfranchise) with Leto set to produce theTronsequel alongside Justin Springer and Emma Ludbrook.
The firstTronremains abeloved science fiction classicto this day, with the movie largely remembered for the stylistic rotoscope effect. Released in 1982,Tronwas written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The movie follows Kevin Bridges' computer programmer, Kevin Flynn, who is dragged into a virtual world where he is pitted against a malevolent software he himself created. He takes the help of Tron, a security program that helps him defeat the villain and escape.
Tronwas followed up almost thirty years later with director Joseph Kosinski’sTron: Legacy, which picks up following the disappearance of Jeff Bridges' character Kevin Flynn. Skipping forward to 20 years later, the main narrative follows Kevin’s son, Sam, played by Garrett Hedlund, who discovers a message believed to have been sent by his father. Sam soon finds himself transported into The Grid, where he not only reunites with Kevin and meets an algorithm named Quorra, but also clashes with the program Clu, played by a digitally de-aged Jeff Bridges, who is trying to make his way into the real world.
Despite all the efforts that clearly went into re-creating the movie’s iconic look for a modern audience,Tron: Legacyearned a mixed critical reception and ended up making over $400 million worldwide off a $170 million budget, which sadly was not enough to warrant the sequel that Joseph Kosinski had planned. Since then, fans have wondered whether the franchise would ever be revisited, with rumors emerging over the last few months that a Jared Leto-led third movie would be the studio’s next move.
Disney music executive Mitchell Leib recently discussed the possibility of a thirdTronmovie saying, “And we’ve got a great script, I mean a really phenomenal script that we’re very excited about. Whereas the timing wasn’t right to have done it years ago, I think we feel like the timing is right now, and I feel like we’ve learned a lot of lessons from that last movie.”
The news that Garth David has come on board certainly suggests thatTron 3is not only happening, but is moving in a very promising direction. This comes to us fromDeadline.
