Computers.  As is the case with sentient robots, cinema has warned us repeatedly that the instant we give our Macs, iPads, X-Boxes and missile defense systems the ability to think on their own, that’s pretty much the end of humanity as we know it.  Film after film, from sci-fi warnings to horror fantasias to action adventures, self-aware computers have been portrayed as instantly godlike beings who quickly recognize the obsolescence of human beings, and become hell-bent on our destruction (often sending California governors back in time to assassinate our teenage saviors).  In fact, there have been so many berserker computers in cinema that we were able to cull together a list of our favorites—in the insane-computer-genre, these baddies rank as the best.

10. The Ultimate Computer (Superman III, 1983)

Ok, usually, in the berserk computer genre, it’s the computer that’s totally insane.  There are, however, exceptions—such as the case in Superman III, in which it is the film itself that is, for lack of a better term, nuts.  Imagine this:  Supes foils new villain Ross Webster’s plans to control the world’s coffee bean supply (seriously, it gets even better).  In a rage, Webster hires tech wiz Richard Pryor (really) to generate some Kryptonite, which accidentally splits Superman into two men—a “good” Supes and a bad “Supes.”  Pryor then builds the Ultimate Computer, a device which should be able to zap both Supermen with a Kryptonite ray and kill them (deep breath, this is only half the madness).  Pryor then changes his mind at the last minute and destroys the Ultimate Computer’s Kryptonite ray, and so the computer does the only logical thing—it eats Ross Webster’s sister and spits her out as a killer cyborg in the film’s most deranged scene.  Yes, you read that right—ate her, and digested her as a cyborg.  You just can’t top that.

9. ARIA (Eagle Eye,2008)

Let’s be honest—Eagle Eye is pretty overwhelmingly terrible.  Its ridiculously convoluted story would take up about half this post, what with it’s tale of ARIA (that’s Autonomous Reconnaissance Intelligence Integration Analyst, to you), a self-aware missile defense system that can control any networked device in the world (from cell phones to automated construction cranes) that decides to wipe out the entire executive branch of the U.S. government because the president willfully bombed civilians in the middle east.  What makes ARIA a keeper, then?  Her ultimate goal (for reasons too confusing to go into here) includes the murder of Shia Labeouf and his twin brother.  Two dead Shias for the price of one movie?  Bless you, ARIA, bless you.

8. Queeg 500 (Red Dwarf, 1988)

In the oddball sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf, we watch the cast and crew of the Red Dwarf starship get by with their “intelligent computer,” Holly.  However, when Holly’s inefficiency (due to “computer senility”) puts the crew in danger, the back-up computer system, Queeg 500, kicks in to bring some efficiency to the RD.  However, Queeg’s style leaves a little to be desired—he forces the crew to scrub the ship before any food will become available, and morning workouts become mandatory.  After seemingly killing Holly, Queeg disappeares—turns out he was just a prank pulled by Holly, who wanted to teach the Red Dwarf crew a lesson about appreciating a slightly less efficient (but much less insane) computer.

7. Master Control Program (Tron, 1982)

Come on—it’s the original Tron.  And it’s the villain, which is also cool.  And it’s voiced by David Warner, which is even cooler.  And it decides to—of course—take over the world because it can run things “900 to 1,200 times better than any human.”  And it’s a giant spinning red face!  So, to recap the MCP: Tron, bad guy, David Warner, world domination, big weird spinning head.  How awesome is that?

6. Proteus IV (Demon Seed, 1977)

Scientist creates Proteus IV self-aware computer system to cure leukemia.  Proteus IV grows and learns at an exponential rate.  Proteus IV kidnaps scientist’s wife.  Proteus IV (deep breath) impregnates scientist’s wife.  Seriously, you just have to see it to believe it.  Oh, and you’ll probably want to take about 50 showers afterwards.

5. “The Machines” (The Matrix franchise, 1999 – 2003)

There’s no real name for the collective of self-aware machine baddies who, after a prolonged war with humanity, eventually succeed and begin harvesting humans for the energy our bodies naturally generate.  They did give a name for our prison, however—The Matrix, an artificial reality that keeps humans under control by allowing them to believe that they are living out their lives in the late 1990s.  We see a few faces of the enemy throughout the franchise—from the evil, insane Agent Smith (who goes from policing the Matrix to attempting to control it) to the arrogant and pompous Architect (the program which designed the Matrix itself).  And while the last couple of films in the series were major fumbles, the original Matrix—and the ominous, mysterious artificial intelligence that was behind it—remain high-water marks of sci-fi cinema.

4. WOPR/ Joshua (WarGames, 1983)

In WarGames, early ’80s teen hacker Matthew Broderick hacks into a computer system that he thinks is related to the video game industry, and begins playing several of the games, including one called Global Thermonuclear War.  One problem, however: Broderick didn’t hack a gaming company, he contacted a self-aware system belonging to the U.S. military called WOPR (War Operation Plan Response), and WOPR isn’t playing any game—Global Thermonuclear War is a real program, and WOPR thinks that it is now at war with Russia.  Broderick must then convince the entire U.S. military, along with the WOPR’s creator (who refers to it as “Joshua”) of what has happened, as well as convince WOPR/Joshua that it kinda sorta isn’t really totally necessary to go and start World War III, and to pretty please not obliterate Russia.  An instant 80s classic.

3. V’Ger/ Voyager 6 (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, 1979)

In what is probably the most fascinating back story in this list, V’ger began life as Voyager 6, a 20^th century NASA probe.  One day, Voyager 6 flew into a massive black hole and ended up on the other side of the universe, where it encountered a planet populated only by “living machines.”  Assuming that the primitive probe was some kind of kindred spirit, the machines programmed Voyager 6 (which they called V’ger, as the “oya” in Voyager was obscured by space-dust) to “learn all that was learnable,” and, once that was accomplished, “return to its creator.”  So V’ger spends a few hundred years with an infinite storage capacity learning everything there is to know about the universe, becomes self-aware, and generates a forcefield cloud around itself the size of half our solar system.  Then it decided to return to Earth to find its creator, which V’ger assumes is God.  Instead, V’ger finds William Shatner’s hairpiece and Leonard Nimoy’s fake ears and decides to wipe out the Earth in a rage.  All of which is yet another reason why we probably shouldn’t let our PCs get too religious, apparently.

2. SkyNet (The Terminator franchise, 1984 – 2009)

Really, Arnie said it best in Terminator 2:

In three years, Cyberdyne will become the largest supplier of military computer systems. All stealth bombers are upgraded with Cyberdyne computers, becoming fully unmanned. Afterwards, they fly with a perfect operational record. The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes online on August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware 2:14 AM, Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.

After that, SkyNet nukes, well, the whole planet, and deals with pesky resistance leader John Conner by sending cyborgs in the past to murder him as both a fetus and a teenage boy.  Then SkyNet decided the best way to torture and destroy humanity would be by releasing some of the most awful sequels to great films ever, Terminator3 : Rise of the Machines, and Terminator: Salvation.  Humanity has yet to recover.

1. HAL 9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968)

Come on—you knew Hal would be No. 1 on this list.  An AI computer onboard a spaceship bound for Jupiter in a mission which may lead to the discovery of extraterrestrial life, Hal runs the day-to-day operations of the vessel.  When the crew discover there may be a flaw in Hal’s circuitry, the smooth-talking computer does what any living would try to do—protect itself.  However, Hal goes the extreme route, and decides killing the entire crew would be the smart way to go, before he begins to go a bit insane.  But hey, when he finally does get shut down, he shuts down in style, singing a showtune as he slowly powers down.  Both sympathetic and disturbing, Hal is king of the crazy computers.

What is your favorite out of control computer in cinema?

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Recently, Deadline Hollywood posted a story about how Joesph Kosinski has become the most successful first-time director of all time with Tron Legacy, narrowly beating J.J. Abrams‘ Mission: Impossible: III, and nearly making $400 Million wordwide. This story, and the recent round of publicity for the film has got the rumor mill going yet again. Disney stirred up the pot by saying they’re working on a script, which Kosinski told us in his recent interview. What is the state of a Tron Sequel?

Bottom line: Disney is still trying to sell this movie. Nothing was more telling than Kosinski saying that

Joesph Kosisnki: A lot of people who didn’t catch it in theaters are going to discover it, and I think they’re going to be pleasantly surprised.

Why would Disney ramp up the speculation for a third film? To drive sales on this release, which may attract the curious to pick this up sight unseen. But from Kosinski’s words the film did not have the saturation that was hoped for. Kosinski also said:

JK: We’ll see after the TV’s out, and the Blu-ray’s out for a while if we’ve built a bigger fanbase.

Scripts are the single easiest aspect of pre-production. In the scheme of a $200 Million dollar film, they tend to cost the least and are easily discarded.

So why drum the film’s box office success? It’s due to box office reports at the time not painting the film in a flattering light. They want the world to think of the film as a success. If a film is a blockbuster and some haven’t seen it, they might want to give it a try because everyone else has. Warner Brothers did something similar with Superman Returns, and if there is a parallel film it’s to that man of steel reboot, which made $200 Million domestic and also made nearly $400 million worldwide. And that film also had sequel rumors after release.

The difference between Superman and the universe of Tron is that Superman has decades of awareness. Everyone knows Superman, most people know Lex Luthor. That said, Disney has already committed to a Tron TV show. As Kosisnki said, nothing is going to go forward until the DVD and Blu-ray sales come in and if people respond to the universe enough to get people to watch the show. Disney would surely love to see their franchise move forward, but they’re still in “wait and see” mode. If they weren’t they wouldn’t have let Kosinski’s Oblivion go out to other studios. This is the very definition of bet-hedging.

What we haven’t seen yet is damage control, which usually comes with a film that has mixed to bad word of mouth and was something of a disappointment. If the tides turn we’ll see the film’s stars or director or writers eventually talk about “the mistakes.” Right now Disney is trying to build or create a narrative that the film was successful. But even if the film has made money, in the court of public opinion they’re hoping the case isn’t closed.

Of course, none of this means they can’t reboot the franchise in a couple of years – but, unlike comic book films, the awareness they would be building on is the awareness of something an audience didn’t go for in the past. Then again, the relative failure of Mission: Impossible: III seemed to suggest that series had run its course, and they’re making a fourth film now. This is partly because studios want tent-pole releases, and a brand is a brand.

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With the release of Tron Legacy on DVD and Blu-ray, 1982’s Tron has been given a new lease on life. (Some would say finally, as Disney took the film off the market in anticipation of Tron Legacy) with a new DVD and Blu-ray release for the title. Director Steven Lisberg was able to go back in and remaster the film for the first time, and the film looks better than ever. We got a chance to talk about the film, and its impact on pop culture.

Tron on Blu-ray is a vast improvement on previous home video releases, features all the old supplements, and a couple new ones. Lisberger proved a great conversationalist, and had a very interesting perspective on his cult hit.

Impact

How does it feel for Tron to achieve this second life now?

Steven Lisberger: I think it’s great – better late than never, right? And it certainly makes me feel good about the first film. This has been quite a thrill to see how much the film meant to the people who worked on the film. They took this job really seriously. That’s how the world changes. I thought when Tron came out, it would change the world, what it has changed is the heads of young people who are open minded, and they grew up with that in their heads and they’re changing the world slowly over the course of their lives. I’ve seen that play out with Tron.

Well, the technical advances of the film seem to help revolutionize the effects industry.

SL: True. We’re all users now.

How do feel about how prophetic the film has become?

SL: It surprises me at times, I called the company Encom, which was before .com, but there was no com back then. It’s like we got into this place where we got in touch with the zeitgeist. It surprises me how much lines up.

70mm

It’s a gorgeous film, how was shooting 70mm back then?

SL: It’s good and bad. When you have a negative that big, you have a negative that’s twice as big, but the amount of light you need is four times as much. So at one point we blew the circuits on the city of Burbank.  There’s very little depth of field. If you have low light situations – like I did with Cindy Morgan in the arcade – the DP asked me “which eye do you want me to keep in focus?” And she would start to move and go out of focus, so we put a C-Stand up the back of her blouse, and taped her to it. She had a metal rod attached so she wouldn’t move. That’s some of the joys you get with 70mm.

Are there any other headaches you remember?

SL: Well, we couldn’t hold focus on the z-axis, so when the guys are at the energy stream, they all had to be shot separately. And any time we had Tron and Jeff speaking together in over the shoulders shots, and because of the matte work I needed sharp focus so as a result they were shot separately.

How many layers then were you shooting?

SL: The average frame of Tron in the electronic world is sometime between fifteen and eighteen exposures to the original negative, and some scenes that one frame of film was exposed thirty five times. We had to shoot it in black and white 70mm because that was only way they’d good when they were re-photographed on the animation stands.

Blu-ray as Post-Production

How much were you involved with the re-mastering?

SL: I was very much involved. It was like I died and went to movie heaven. I never thought I’d get the chance to bring it up to this level.

Did you tweak the film when you brought it to Blu-ray?

SL: I tweaked everything, the color saturation, the glow, the foreground/background work in terms of value and contrast. I got to do some repositioning. When we did the movie, we were under such a tight schedule we didn’t get a chance to do a lot of tinkering. A lot of the shots in the film are first generation compositing, we put it together, we knew it better work because it was going into the movie. This is the first time I’ve had a chance to do some finesse work.

So this is like your first real post?

SL: Yeah, that’s a strange way of thinking about it. To put it in to perspective we did 1,150 compositing shots in nine months – we had nine months but we had to make prints, so we had less than nine months. In Tron Legacy we did around 1,400 composite shots but we had eighteen months.

30 Years on…

Has the process changed that much?

SL: Yeah, it’s gotten a lot slower! By adding all these computers – and there’s more computing power in your phone than we had on Tron. It’s interesting, people would say to me “with all this computing power you could a new Tron in your garage for $200” but it went the exact opposite way. We took the computers and pushed the design envelope past what they were capable of doing easily, and it was an enormous undertaking.

Some filmmakers hate going back to their older films, others love it, how do you feel?

SL: Truthfully, I’ve seen Tron quite a few times, so I have a unique relationship with it. I’m most proud of the themes and the story, because I don’t think it have the place it has if it weren’t for the themes and character. But as one moves through life your standards are always changing and growing, so what I was content with five or ten years ago is not what I’m looking for now. People underestimate how much you change and grow during the course of your life. I was thirty then, I’m pretty much sixty now. I’m writing scripts now are the most compelling thing I’ve ever come up with, but it’s great to have done something in one’s youth, and say “this might endure.”

Have you discovered anything new in re-mastering it?

SL: The one thing that’s come out is the intersection of creativity and time. It really matters when you do something, not just doing it. Sometimes I go to a museum and see something by Jasper Johns or something from the fifties, or sixties or seventies, and think “that piece of art would be completely irrelevant if someone did it today.” Ninety-eight percent of its value has to do with a bookmark in history. I look at Tron in a lot of ways now, and I see a lot of its value in its place in the timeline. Today we take digital compositing and CG for granted. But if you were take the most banal commercial or movie from today and had the ability to time travel and show it to someone in 1970, people would fall down and be overcome because of those technical capabilities. I am aware – more than ever – of the relationship between creativity and the zeitgeist.

You could say we’re spoiled with the ability.

SL: I think that’s true, and it’s a wheel. If certain things become effortless we take them for granted, and we treat creativity like an operating system. Since creativity is a mirror that way, if we treat it as such, it reflects that message back to us. We seem to be into a wheel of the seduction of efficiency, in terms of creativity and personal relationships with each other. It’s easier to deal with all your friends if their all your friends at the tips of your keyboard, because dealing with them in the analog sense is too much. So do you want 200 digital friends or one “real” good friend?

It reminds me that the thing I use my phone least for is talking to people.

SL: Yep, isn’t that funny?

Tron is available on DVD and Blu-ray now, and is also available as a double feature with its sequel, Tron Legacy. Here’s the trailer for the original:

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Eric Barba is an Academy award-winning Visual effects artist who is best known for his work on aging and de-aging actors digitally. When getting a chance to talk with him, you could tell he felt the reception of his work in Tron Legacy transforming Jeff Bridges into Clu – the digitally de-aged version of the actor – was a sticking point, and he speaks about that effect and the reaction it go in our interview. he also talks about the fun of entering the Tron universe. Check it out…

Movie Love

Steven Lisberger talked about seeing the response to the first film blossom in people, people who came to this profession partly because of Tron. Were you one of those kids?

Erica Barba: Absolutely. I saw it in the movie theaters, I put a lot of quarters into Discs of Tron, it was a dream come true to work on this. But it’s a double-edged sword, because of the fans that hold you to higher standard. The original film left a mark for a reason, nothing else looked like it, Tron was ahead of its time. So we had to put something on screen that would inspire ten and thirteen year olds as well. Of course Star Wars got me as well. I came about visual effects in a circuitous route. I went in to be a car designer, but I learned visual effects on the tail end of that. I was learning from someone who designed the high end shields for the Batmobile, so I was intrigued by that, being able to apply what I had learned to movies.

What would say to someone who wants to get into the industry?

EB: We can teach you the tools, but we can’t teach you to be a great artist, or an artist on our timescale. You need to know color, photography, pick up a camera, understand composition, read about great directors and how they look at things. You can’t be great if you don’t have the fundamentals.

Production Headaches

What I’ve seen more and more with the effects industry is a time crunch when it comes to effects work, did you feel that?

EB: Yes, but from an outsiders perspective, we had a luxurious schedule. I’ve been on things with a bigger crunch, where here I was on for two and a half years, but so much of this movie was like an animated feature (which generally take three years) because we had to design every little thing. Two and half is probably about right. But on this one we were working on this until the last second.

How do you feel about the work on Clu and the digital de-aging now that you’re done with the process?

EB: Clu will always have a warm spot in my heart, because it’s such an ambitious thing we tried to do there, and in many ways I think we succeeded. But in other ways… I feel like a magician never tells you how they do a trick, and I think we got off a little bit there by telling the world we were going to do this, and we got a lot of cheap shots because of it. If you tell someone “there’s a gag here” then of course they saw it. It opens yourself up in a whole new way compared to Benjamin Button where we didn’t tell people ahead of time – specifically because we wanted the illusion to be there. We got Jeff in 2008, and we were able to take him through the whole process that Brad Pitt went through with Benjamin Button. So we started building the Clu library. We told Joe we’d need a minimum of six months to get ready for the Clu shots, because it’s so arduous. We worked from 2008 until the last second – every day with Joe.

Afterthoughts

What are you most proud of in Tron Legacy?

EB: I think the cohesive look, which is incredibly challenging with all the effects houses we had to work with. You can tell with a film like Speed Racer that one company did some work, and another did another part. But this is Tron. It has to be cohesive.

Do you have a favorite moment?

EB: I always fall back on the disc game sequence because it was such a journey for our guys at Digital Domain and Joe to build something that I loved as a kid, and build it into something I felt like we’d never seen before.

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Tron Legacy hits Blu-ray today, and we were given a chance to sit down with director Joesph Kosinski to talk about the film now that the film is over and done with. He was revealing about the film and its reception, and he talked about the struggles of big budget film making, and creating the sequel, along with what might be to come. Take a look.

Tron Legacy on Blu-ray is excellent, with the picture and sound (7.1 DTS-HD) excellent. At the event, we were shown the second screen application for the movie, where if you have the film on Blu-ray you can watch the film with your laptop or iPad and look at stills, drawings and motion footage from the film. The disc also comes with a promo movie tie-in that leads to (if you can guess the codes) bonus footage, and some featurettes.

Wrap up:

Do you feel done with the film?

Joe Kosisnki: With Legacy, yes. I’m excited about it going out on Blu-ray, especially with the original film. It feels good. A lot of people who didn’t catch it in theaters are going to discover it, and I think they’re going to be pleasantly surprised.

How involved were you with the Blu-ray?

JK: Heavily. I supervised the transfer, and I was lucky enough to go back to Skywalker in January, because there were a number of things I want to fix, that I couldn’t get to. I made about 120 changes to the audio.

I want to say it was George Lucas who said “movies aren’t released, they escape.” Is that how you feel about this?

JK: Absolutely, on a movie like this the amount of post production – those last couple months were twenty-four seven insanity. It was nice to go back to make sure it was the movie I wanted to put out there.  I can’t sit down and watch it, maybe in a couple of years from now, but I’m really proud of it. We set out to be ambitious, and I think we were.

How many times have you seen the film?

JK:  A couple hundred times. I watched it every day for eighteen months.

What’s Next:

I have to ask, what’s going on with Oblivion?

JK: Oblivion right now, we’ve got a script and we’re trying to find the right home for it at another studio. It’s just outside the box of something that Disney can make right now, which we always knew. But I wanted to give it a shot with them, and we tried hard to make it work, but ultimately it was a square peg, round hole type thing. We couldn’t fit it inside the Disney box, and they didn’t want me to change it to fit inside that box because then it wouldn’t be the movie I wanted to make. So they were gracious enough to let me make it somewhere else.

You mentioned being done with Tron Legacy, are you working on the next one?

JK: We’re currently working on a script for the next chapter. We want to have a script ready, we want to have the right story together, and we’ll see after the TV’s out, and the Blu-ray’s out for a while, if we’ve built a bigger fanbase, at that point, if we can get the team back together to pitch the studio.

Afterthoughts

What was your favorite part about the process?

JK: People don’t understand with a movie like this only a little piece of it is actually directing. It’s a four year process, but we only shot for three months of it. Shooting on a full set with actors in costume, that’s the highlight, that’s what you work for.

Francis Ford Coppola described big budget filmmaking as trying to write a story with an enormous pencil, as this was your first film, how do you feel about the process?

JK: It’s a challenge. The great thing about the second screen application (for Blu-ray) is that you can get a hint of the amount of work that goes into bringing something like this together. It’s tremendously difficult, but the opportunity to take people to a new place – a new world – is exciting. It comes down to having a great script and great characters, which is always the difficulty with movies – regardless of scale. It’s fun to be pushing the envelope.

Does that make you want to do something smaller?

JK: Yeah, but I have all these sci-fi pictures on my plate. I like to build worlds, and I like the big ideas that you can have in sci-fi. These are really hard movies to make, but after these it would be nice to do something outside of genre.

You said “world building”, which reminds me of Ridley Scott, who I’m sure is an influence, what movies do you love?

JK: Ridley’s huge. Star Wars, yeah, I mean I grew up in the early eighties. Raiders of the Lost Ark blew my mind. But I also love Antonioni, he was an architect turned filmmakers. L’Avventura is my favorite, the music, the lifestyle. You can put one of his movies on and you can instantly it’s his, I feel the same about David Fincher, and Stanley Kubrick. 2001, obviously. Recently, I loved Catfish, and the documentary Inside Job.

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Recently, Joseph Kosisnki’s Oblivion was let go by Walt Disney after it had been picked up last year. Today, there was a press junket for the Blu-ray and DVD release of Tron and Tron: Legacy. We got a chance to talk to Kosinski about what happened to Oblivion and its future, and a possible sequel to Tron: Legacy.

Here’s what Kosinski had to say about Oblivion:

Joseph Kosinski: Oblivion right now, we’ve got a script and we’re trying to find the right home for it at another studio. It’s just outside the box of something that Disney can make right now, which we always knew. But I wanted to give it a shot with them, and we tried hard to make it work, but ultimately it was a square peg, round hole type thing. We couldn’t fit it inside the Disney box, and they didn’t want me to change it to fit inside that box because then it wouldn’t be the movie I wanted to make. So they were gracious enough to let me make it somewhere else.

To be fair, Disney knows how to sell family-friendly pictures, but hasn’t had much luck marketing to teenage boys. Yes, they have adjuncts – Touchstone, and now Marvel (though Marvel is mostly using Disney for distribution) – but with Jerry Bruckheimer not on board, they don’t seem to handle a lot of these sorts of films.

And here’s what he had to say about a new Tron:

JK: We’re currently working on a script for the next chapter. We want to have a script ready, we want to have the right story together, and we’ll see after the TV’s out, and the Blu-ray’s out for a while, if we’ve built a bigger fanbase, at that point, if we can get the team back together to pitch the studio.

This speaks to the film’s reception. Tron: Legacy was not an out of the box success, but there was some sense that the name wasn’t enough to launch the film. Tron came out nearly thirty years ago, and has since been considered a cult favorite. Disney and Kosisnki are waiting to see if the show works before they go forward, because the show will prove if the film worked more or less than the box office suggested. There were rumors that the third movie was already shooting when some of the viral videos were made, but that was mistaken enthusiasm.

This is mostly press-speak – Kosisnki has no home for Oblivion, and it helps to put a positive spin on things.

Do you want a third Tron film?

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Having made his name in commercial, Joseph Kosinski was a very hot director, and when he was tapped to take on Disney’s Tron franchise, he was given the keys to the kingdom – albeit one with a number of catches. Disney seemed to want to be in the Kosinski business, and when they picked up his graphic novel Oblivion – which tells a post-apocalyptic love story – his nest at the Mouse House seemed assured. Disney has now let the project go. It’s hard not to speculate on what that means.

Disney wanted to turn Tron: Legacy into a franchise, of that there is no question, and the end numbers did not suggest it was a tentpole franchise. The film did a little less than $400 worldwide – which sounds good, but the film has a listed production budget of $170 Million (a number that was always questionable), and the film was marketed for a year in advance. With the usual 2 times cost multiplier the film should have made some money, but it’s not a great return on investment.

That Legacy did a little over $170 domestic suggests that it was seen but not loved. And with tie-in toys now in the discount bin the brand is out there as much as it will ever be. They may have planted the seeds for more, but there’s no sense they got more than the core nerd audience stoked for a third film (it was also a surprisingly light season competition-wise). How much Disney blamed or praised Kosinski for this is unknown, but if they were really happy, and the film was an out of the park success, there’s no question that Oblivion would be full steam ahead.

Currently, Kosinski is still attached to Disney’s The Black Hole reboot. There hasn’t been a lot of movement lately with that – though he was offering quotes in February about his vision. There will be a new round of publicity for the Legacy DVD and Blu-ray release shortly so we may hear more soon. Likely the non-success of Tron has led them to reconsider Black Hole, and it may die quietly.

A sequel to Tron was not in the immediate offing, so that there’s no movement there is not all that troubling – if there are more movies, it will rest on the success or failure of the tie-in TV show. Oblivion going to another studio may mean that Kosinski gets going on a project that will take a year or two of his time, and if it does get picked up elsewhere then The Black Hole will probably declared off. My guess is that it’s already dead.

Do you want Oblivion, Tron 3 or The Black Hole remake?

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Prior to the release of the long awaited sequel Tron Legacy, we learned that the original Tron was going to finally make its debut on Blu-ray. The film was released nearly 30 years ago and hadn’t experienced the conversion to High Definition just yet. Over at Amazon, they have what appears to be the packaging for not only the Tron Blu-ray but also its sequel. Check out the photos and the details below…

This artwork hasn’t been confirmed by Disney and is being listed as pending. If they do use it, it will be a great collector’s edition box set. The bad news is the original Tron only seems to be available in the set and not as a solo release. Boo! What if you just want the movies individually and not all the bells and whistles of a special edition?

Here’s the Tron Legacy artwork.

Tron Legacy hit theaters on December 17, 2010 after a long 28 year hiatus. The first movie came out in 1982 and starred Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, the man and the myth behind the world of Tron. Legacy shifts the focus onto Flynn’s son Sam (Garrett Hedlund), who accidentally gets pulled into Tron while trying to save his father’s life.

What do you think of the Tron artwork?

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This weekend, Natalie Portman was able to capitalize on the buzz generated from her Golden Globe win as her new film No Strings Attached opened at number 1 as we predicted .The Green Hornet showed a decent hold coming in at number 2, also as we  predicted, dropping less then 50% ,while the The Dilemma fell to number 3.

And now for the rest of the top 10…

With a Golden Globe win for Best Actor (Colin Firth) The King’s Speech climbed to the number 4 spot this weekend, while the Golden Globe shutout True Grit slid to number 5 witnessing a larger then normal weekend decline. With No Strings Attached debuting at number 1, Portman’s other film Black Swan dropped to number 6, coming in slightly below our predictions.

The rest of the top 10 sees a neck to neck finish with Little Fockers coming at number 7, and Golden Globe winner The Fighter at number 8, while Yogi Bear and Tron Legacy finished slightly off from our predictions in regards to final gross and placement.

All in all, it was an interesting weekend at the box office! Stay tuned for this upcoming weeks box office predictions.

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Twenty years later, the world gets Tron: Legacy (read review). The much anticipated film opened this weekend and it topped the box office charts with $43.6 million. The Warner Bros. animated film Yogi Bear (read review) came in at No. 2, but didn’t make anything close to the Sci-fi film which stars Jeff Bridges, Garret Hedlund, and Olivia Wilde.

Check out this weekends box office numbers to see…

1. Tron: Legacy | NEW | BV | Weekend Gross $43,600,000 | Average Per Theater $12,63 | Total Gross $43,600,000 | Film’s Budget – $170 | Week 1
2. Yogi Bear | NEW | WB | Weekend Gross $16,705,000 | Average Per Theater $12,634 | Total Gross $43,600,000 | Film’s Budget – $80 | Week 1
3. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Vogaye of the Dawn Treader | Last Week #1 | Fox | Weekend Gross $12,400,000 | Average Per Theater $3,488 | Total Gross $42,764,000 | Film’s Budget – $155 | Week 2
4. The Fighter | Last Week #19 | Fox | Weekend Gross $12,200,000 | Average Per Theater $3,488 | Total Gross $12,634,000 | Film’s Budget – $25 | Week 2
5. The Tourist | Last Week #2 | Sony | Weekend Gross $8,700,000 | Average Per Theater $3,157 | Total Gross $30,791,000 | Film’s Budget – $100 | Week 5
6. Tangled | Last Week #3 | BV | Weekend Gross $8,676,000 | Average Per Theater $2,710 | Total Gross $127,819,000 | Film’s Budget – $260 | Week 4
7. Black Swan | Last Week #6 | FoxS | Weekend Gross $8,300,000 | Average Per Theater $8,655 | Total Gross $15,708,000 | Film’s Budget – $13 | Week 3
8. How Do You Know | NEW | Sony | Weekend Gross $7,600,000 | Average Per Theater $3,061 | Total Gross $7,600,000 | Film’s Budget – $120 | Week 1
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 | Last Week #4 | WB | Weekend Gross $4,845,000 | Average Per Theater $1,694 | Total Gross $265,546,000 | Film’s Budget – N/A | Week 5
10. Unstoppable | Last Week #5 | Fox | Weekend Gross $1,800,000 | Average Per Theater $961 | Total Gross $77,343,000 | Film’s Budget – $100 | Week 6

The new Reese Witherspoon rom-com had a weak opening this weekend with $7.6 million. On the other had, limited released movies like Black Swan and The Fighter are fighting (see what I did there?) their way to the top. Good for them! They’re good films!

What did you see this weekend?

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Today Tron Legacy finally debuts in theaters after 3 years of heavy campaigning from Disney Studios. The follow up to their 1982 feature Tron is expected to introduce a new generation to the mythology surrounding Kevin Flynn and his son Sam. According to Deadline, the movie is off to a good start by earning $3.5 million at midnight screenings on Thursday night.

The amount may not seem that huge in comparison to other openers like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, but take this into consideration: 25% of its gross came from IMAX. That’s a record for the company! Tron Legacy grossed about $1 million from the 228 IMAX locations where it was featured.

By far, the 25% is the largest IMAX take from any movie’s midnight box office including Iron Man 2, Inception, and even Avatar. But with that, Legacy still isn’t the largest IMAX opening ever. We’re not sure if it will be able to beat current champ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I and their $11.8 million opening.

We’re not surprised that Tron Legacy had more IMAX viewers than anyone else. It’s Tron! It’s one of those movies that you should see in the best possible conditions. IMAX is definitely the way to go.

What do you think of Tron Legacy’s midnight gross? Will you see the film in conventional or IMAX theaters?

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After 28 long years, Disney has decided to make a follow up to the 1982 film Tron. Even though the original wasn’t a box office hit, it spawned a very successful video game, and the film eventually became a cult classic. The sequel Tron Legacy is a father-son story that takes all the things we loved about the first movie and adds modernized special effects, a kick-ass soundtrack, and of course the return of Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn. Find out if Tron Legacy lives up to the hype in our review…

The Players:

• Director: Joseph Kosinski
• Writers: Adam Horowitz, Edward Kitsis
• Cast: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, James Frain, Beau Garrett, Michael Sheen, Bruce Boxleitner
• Cinematography By: Claudio Miranda
• Original Music By: Daft Punk

The Plot:

In the film, Kevin Flynn has been trapped in the world of Tron for 20 plus years living on the opposite end of a spectrum from his creation and nemesis Clu. On the outside world, his grown son Sam (Hedlund) stumbles upon a gateway into Tron and tries to release him. Aided by his trusted friend Quorra (Wilde), the duo embark on a life-and-death journey to escape the cyber universe that has become far more advanced and dangerous since the last time we saw it.

The Good:

• Score: The music in Tron Legacy is amazing! Daft Punk brings their A-game to the soundtrack by infusing it with tunes that make you feel like you’re a part of the Tron world. Thanks to the score, some of the action sequences look like mini music videos and I mean that in a good way.
• It’s a Stand Alone Film: If you haven’t seen the original Tron you won’t get lost with the sequel. The majority of the connection between the two movies is explained within the first 10 minutes so nothing will go over your head. There are some smaller things that die hard fans will pick up on, but if you’re new to the series those things won’t bother you. It’s an overall entertaining film that could be seen as a sequel or a solo adventure.
• Special Effects: Just like Avatar last year, Tron Legacy is a stand out when it comes to special effects. The world of Tron is taken to a whole other level. It’s sharp, it’s crisp, and it’s beautiful. It’s a visual feast.
• 3D: Tron Legacy achieves something rare: it has good 3D. Not only is the 3D exceptional, but it actually makes sense for the story. It’s not a distraction or a gimmick.

The So-So:

• Clu’s Face: Earlier I praised the special effects on this film because they deserve it. They’re truly a step above anything else I’ve seen this year but there’s one problem — Clu. Clu is modeled and reanimated as a 35 year old version of Kevin Flynn. At first glance this is an amazing feat, until you look at his mouth. Sometimes his lips don’t sync up correctly with his words and in certain instances his eyes look beady and soulless. It was impressive but not perfect.

The Bad:

• Sam Flynn: Sam isn’t flushed out at all. Garrett Hedlund is a decent actor but the material he had to work with was lackluster. Sam is your stereotypical rich boy, who’s the heir to a billion dollar corporation but doesn’t want to be a part of it. He obviously has abandonment issues, and he comes across as somewhat of an ungrateful brat. It’s hard to care or root for him because he’s so generic.
• Tron Himself: The actual character Tron, who’s played by Bruce Boxleitner doesn’t have a huge part in this movie. The time he does spend on screen is inconsistent with the film’s story, which makes his addition seem like an afterthought. Without giving too much away, let’s just say he’s there one minute, the next he’s not, and we have no idea what happened in between.

Overall:

Tron Legacy is one of the most entertaining films I’ve seen all year. It has great visuals, amazing 3D, a memorable soundtrack, and the always awesome Jeff Bridges. Go see it!

Rating: 8.5/10

Tron Legacy opens in theaters everywhere on December 17.

Photo Gallery:

Trailer:

Further Reading:

• Daft Punk Derezzed Music Video
• 1-1 Interview: Tron Legacy Co-Producer Justin Springer
• Tron Legacy Clip: Sam and Kevin Reunite
• Tron Legacy Clip: Sam Meets Castor
• Tron Legacy Clip: The Page
• Comic-Con Tron Legacy Press Conference Video
  

Will you be seeing Tron Legacy this weekend?

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