Although previous reports suggested that Walt Disney Pictures had plans to move forward with TRON 3, The Hollywood Reporter now brings word that the planned return to the Grid will not be happening. Both Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde were set to reprise their respective roles as Sam Flynn and Quorra, with TRON: Legacy helmer Joseph Kosinski back at the helm. Sadly, the studio has elected not to go into production on the sequel. At least for the time being, the future of the TRON franchise has been derezed.
Released in 1982, the original TRON under-performed at the box office, but it nonetheless managed to find an important place in pop culture over the next few decades. The sequel was scripted by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz from a story they developed with Brian Klugman and Lee Sternhal, based in turn on characters created by Bonnie MacBird and original TRON helmer Steven Lisberger.
There was never an official title or plot revealed for TRON 3, although today’s trade report suggests that Kosinski was keen on casting Academy Award winner Jared Leto in a key role.
The studio could not find a place on its crowded slate as it looked all the way into 2018, according to an executive at the studio.
The team that had been coming together to make the film got word Friday that Hollywood’s top studio would not go ahead with the film in the foreseeable future, despite the franchise’s popularity and the fact that the 2010 version Tron: Legacy made nearly $400 million worldwide at the box office.
“We had never greenlit the movie, but it was in development for some time,” said one Disney executive, discussing the sensitive decision to table the project. “Things in the queue got ahead of it and we have such a big slate out in front of it, we started to think, ‘Where does it go?’ And it’s a pretty big investment to make if you are not even sure when you are going to release it.”
When Disney looked out at its release horizon, though, it did not see a likely spot for the new Tron film. Walt Disney Pictures already has Jungle Book, another Pirates of the Caribbean installment, Alice in Wonderland, Pete’s Dragon and Beauty and the Beast. And that’s not to mention other highly-anticipated projects, like director Tim Burton’s Dumbo, and a raft of mega-pics that are on the way from Disney’s premium-label subsidiaries — Pixar, Lucasfilm and Marvel.
There had been sufficient reporting about the film’s early development and buzz on fanboy sites that some observers had assumed Disney had given a formal greenlight to the production, but it never had. “I think it could resurface at some point but it’s not going to get the go button right now,” said another individual familiar with the project.
I know a lot of people were disappointed in the second film. Personally, I thought the movie was good. (Editor’s note: the conversion to 3-D was forced, and non-existent for over half the movie. The acting was underwhelming; Hedlund and Wilde couldn’t, and those who could, like Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner, chose not to. The score by Daft Punk was even worse than their anime Interstella 5555. The movie had less of an idea on how arcades work than fellow Disney film, Wreck-It Ralph.Other than that, there was nothing wrong with the film.)
What are your thoughts of this movie being pulled?