Kosinski Talks De-Rez Of “Tron: Ascension”
Filmmaker Joseph Kosinski is out there right now coming off the rousing success of “Top Gun: Maverick” which dominated the Memorial Day holiday box-office and is holding strong in the days since – buoyed by excellent reviews.
As that was shot a few years back, enough time has passed that he has already completed his fifth feature “Spiderhead” starring Chris Hemsworth and Miles Teller. That film is set to make its worldwide debut on Netflix next month.
As a result, he’s out there doing interview rounds and recently touched upon what happened with his very first feature back in 2010 – “Tron: Legacy”. Serving as a sequel to Disney’s 1982 sci-fi feature, it was praised highly for its visuals, production design and Daft Punk score but was less well-regarded in terms of its story and acting.
“Tron: Legacy” pulled in a $400 million worldwide gross, but due to its sizable $170 million budget – it wasn’t enough for Disney to progress with a third entry which was to be titled “Tron: Ascension”.
Murmurings of a third entry have floated around over the years, and now Kosinski has spoken with Vulture and confirmed that the proposed third “Tron” had gone beyond a mere spitballing of ideas.
In fact he had storyboarded and written the entire project, one that would see the video game world bleed into the real world when Disney officially pulled the plug in 2015:
“I got so close. I really tried. But it was a different Disney by 2015. 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, 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.
Had I made ‘Tron: Ascension,’ I wouldn’t have made ‘Only the Brave,’ and I wouldn’t have made the movies I made. But remember, the first ‘Tron’ was not a hit when it came out. It’s a cult classic. And if ‘Tron: Legacy’s’ becoming the same thing, I couldn’t be more thrilled.”
Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, James Frain, Bruce Boxleitner, Beau Garrett and Michael Sheen starred in “Tron: Legacy” which has begun to attain something of a cult classic status with time.
In 2020 came word that “Lion” director Garth Davis had been tapped to direct a new “Tron” film from a screenplay by Jesse Wigutow. Jared Leto’s name remains linked as well, but for now Disney has not yet publicly announced any further plans for the “Tron” franchise.