Day three of Movie-Con III kicked of with probably the most anticipated footage of the event, the Tron Legacy preview. The preview we were shown appears to have been the same one shown at Comi-Con although there was also an interesting Q&A from Producer Brigham Taylor. The footage comprised of a few scenes followed by a montage. It was described by Taylor as “An introduction to this new world”. Here’s the lowdown on what that was (minor spoilers included).
The footage started with what appeared to be Sam’s arrival in the world. He was then chosen to take part in the ‘Games’. This fate is apparently less than desirable as one character chose suicide rather than taking part. He jumped from a ledge and shattered into glass pieces. After having his clothes removed by four women Sam is dressed in a black outfit and given a memory disk which is attached to his back. One of the women comments, that he’s “different”. We are then introduced to the games by the bombastic Castor (Michael Sheen) which is also soundtracked by Daft Punk (in person in the film). The games appeared to be in a gladiatorial like arena. There then followed a montage including a couple of character/dialogue moments that were very brief and mostly covered in the trailers and then a lot of the action, including the scene with the ‘light-plane’ (seen in the most recent trailer.
The footage was visually stunning and the soundtrack was absolutely superb but it will be interesting to see if the narrative can live up to these impressive aesthetics.
The Q&A with Brigham Taylor that followed the footage was interesting and I have bullet pointed a few of the stand out parts for you. Some of this will be known to those of you who have been following the Tron Legacy news but there are still a couple of interesting quotes from Taylor.
- Taylor said that the original was “ahead of its time” and “they wanted to so something more”
- Despite Tron Legacy being a sequel it is also a “self contained story”
- He described Kevin as “like Colnel Kurtz, gone too far up river”
- Tron Legacy is the tale of two sons, Sam and Clu (Kevin’s avatar)
- Tron Legacy exists in a world in which other stories could be told and that sequels are a “big part of our conversations.
- Tron Legacy is 1000% more advanced than Avatar. Although he said not to quote him on that (so I have not included quotation marks)
- Also, regarding The Black Hole – he said it has been in development for six months.
Here’s the official synopsis for Tron Legacy in case you need a further reminder of the story:
Inside the ENCOM computer system, a program called CLU, created by Kevin Flynn during the original fight against the Master Control Program, has been causing chaos and destruction across the grid. Sean Flynn, son of former ENCOM CEO Kevin Flynn, is in search of his missing father, but Sean discovers that his father’s whereabouts are somehow connected to the program making a mess of the ENCOM system. In order to find his father, Sean has to go into the ENCOM system, and fight his way to CLU, but in the neon world of TRON, a lot has changed and new dangers await him at every turn.
Tron Legacy is a 3D high-tech adventure set in a digital world thats unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. Sam Flynn (Hedlund), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (Bridges), looks into his fathers disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of fierce programs and gladiatorial games where his father has been living for 25 years. Along with Kevins loyal confidant (Wilde), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous.
Tron Legacy is released in UK cinemas on the 26th of December.
