Literal Reboot: Disney To Continue 'TRON'?

TRON, TRON, TRON...

Over six years ago, Walt Disney Studios made the belated sequel to their 1982 sci-fi gem TRON. A film that meshed live-action and fully computer-animated sequences to create a world inside the computer, TRON didn't quite catch on back in the day. When released on video, it little by little grew a sizable cult following. It was enough to make Disney consider a sequel for years and years and years, and they even gave it a deluxe two-disc DVD set for its 20th anniversary.

Back when Disney didn't let go of these kinds of things...

The sequel eventually made it into development during the days when Dick Cook was Chairman of the film studio. Titled TRON: Legacy, it really wasn't a good film, but boy was there a lot of passion in it. Director Joseph Kosinski crafted what I like to call a big tribute to the original that still functioned as a sequel. Boasting excellent action sequences and a rock-solid soundtrack by Daft Punk, I love how they re-imagined the world.

TRON, being an early 80s film, worked off of the limitations of the computers of the era. Naturally, the now primitive-looking CGI in the film really works because those were the days of Apple IIs and Commodore 64s. A computer world based on those kinds of machines makes a lot of sense. With Legacy, they took the overall aesthetic of TRON and made it flashier, more detailed, the like. Light Cycles still resembled the old ones, as did various vehicles and architecture. It was a fitting upgrade. All of that, to me, makes up for the inconsistent script. I felt the story itself was fine, it just needed sharper execution in its second half, and a lead who could've been a little more interesting.

The fate of the TRON franchise has always been... Well, seemingly dour.

TRON: Legacy was in post-production when Cook was ousted from the studio, and was replaced with a young executive from the Disney Channel board named Rich Ross. He was highly unprepared for what he had been handed, and the company made the dire mistake of putting all the chips down for this movie... All the while letting Cook leftovers like Prince of Persia die at the box office.

You see, in mid-2010, Hollywood was still hoping to get a slice of Avatar cake. Movies like Clash of the Titans were hastily post-converted to 3D in an attempt to mimic that success, and by then, audiences soured quickly on the gimmick. 3D now meant nothing, and it didn't help that the first smash after Avatar, Disney's own Alice in Wonderland, broke the billion at the worldwide box office. Back in 2010? $1 billion was still a magic number. Nowadays, plenty of films reach that benchmark like it's nothing.

TRON: Legacy boasted good 3D and sequences that were filmed in IMAX (also new and exciting at the time), talk said that Disney was hoping that this movie would be the next Avatar. Yes, a sequel to a 1982 sci-fi cult classic that most people probably only knew through a cutaway-gag reference on Family Guy, was being considered the "next Avatar". Sure, in March 2010 they didn't predict 3D's collapse, but the next Avatar? A once-in-a-blue-moon kind of smash? C'mon! TRON: Legacy cost $170 million, Disney overspent on the marketing, and when the movie collected a good $400 million worldwide, well... It was uncertain whether a third movie would go through or not.

An animated prequel series to TRON: Legacy, TRON: Uprising, started out with strong ratings... But then Disney death-slotted the series, moving it to a time where few could even watch it. It died quickly. Disney effectively derezzed TRON by the time Rich Ross was ousted. Ross had the shortest tenure of Disney movie studio chairman, and that's quite telling. Current Chairman Alan Horn and live-action studio president Sean Bailey seemingly had no interest in revisiting TRON, and the slate is heavy on remakes of the studio's iconic animated classics. Plus, they have their sci-fi/action fix with Marvel and Star Wars.

Then out of nowhere, in early 2015, we heard that TRON 3 was going to be a go. Filming was set to occur in that following October, but then May 2015 came around. Disney's massive-budget sci-fi tentpole Tomorrowland bombed at the box office, and within days, Disney officially pulled the plug on TRON: Ascension.

Recently, Collider held a special IMAX screening for TRON: Legacy. Kosinski was present, gave a 30-minute Q&A session, and talked about the status of the sequel. He essentially that it was waiting for the right time to move forward, a.k.a. waiting for the day the executives say "yes" and green light it. I wasn't holding my breath...

Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, TRON 3 is back on. Or is it? Kosinski might be out the door, the report says that this "reboot" is not a direct sequel to TRON: Legacy, and it will use elements from the TRON: Ascension script. Only one producer is back, who also produced Kosinski's sci-fi adventure Oblivion. A prominent character in that script was someone named Ares, and Disney apparently wants him to be the main focus of the new movie. Who is set to play this character? Jared Leto.

I have some concerns here. First off, I hope they continue the Flynns' story, even though it's not set to be a "direct sequel". I don't really know how I feel about a third TRON focusing on an all-new character and cast, and to be fair, TRON: Legacy did write a prominent character named Yori out while keeping Kevin Flynn and Alan Bradley/TRON. My other concern? Well, I don't quite want Jared Leto in this, given the things he was apparently accused of doing, his acting skills notwithstanding. Disney can circle many other "hot" stars for this.

My pragmatic side says "Oh quit complaining about the story, at least a new TRON is being made!" But truthfully, I'm not digging the idea of possibly leaving the Flynns behind, or sidelining them for a new character who was never established in the previous movies. No need for a reboot, the story needs to be continued if you ask me. Improve upon what didn't work in numero due, and make for a grand slam that is the best of the sequels, if not the series.

It just seems weird. I thought Disney wanted to have nothing to do with TRON these days, but I guess something is sparking their interest in it. Whether it was the Collider screening or the attraction at Shanghai Disneyland, I don't know. All things considered, $400 million is not bad for a sequel to a cult movie. Compared to what Disney spent on it, yeah, it wasn't quite "successful"... But people did see it. I liken it to movies like Pacific Rim, they may not have made back their money, but they did get a sizable amount of audiences into theaters. Pacific Rim's sequel is filming, thanks in part to how it did in China and probably because they're owned by a massive Chinese conglomerate now. Who says TRON 3 can't and shouldn't happen?

That all being said, I am not going to get my hopes up. The last time I did that, Disney dashed them. Disney's dashed my hopes for these kinds of things several times. The thing is in its infancy, and these days I don't believe many things are actually happening till the day cameras are rolling. I felt this way about Pacific Rim: Uprising (terrible, generic title by the way), because at one point, it seemed like Universal was going to jettison that one. I kept saying "may not happen, may not happen", well after the likes of John Boyega were cast. I kept doubting it until it was confirmed that it was actually in production. I will do the same for TRON: Whatever They Call It as well. Till cameras are rolling, this thing is walking on thin ice. Will it make it? Who knows.

What say you?

Despicable Sequels: Illumination Announces Sequel-Heavy Slate

Illumination Entertainment... What a well-oiled hit-making machine...

As Sing continues to hang on at the box office, the studio has rolled out a revised slate that adds two sequels to the mix.

Remember how The Secret Life of Pets 2 was set to open in July of 2018, just two years after the release of the first one? That's no more, the film has now taken the July 3, 2019 slot.

Another sequel fills their summer 2020 slot: Minions 2. That is opening July 3, 2020. When will enough be enough?

Finally, and this was totally inevitable, Sing 2 has been penciled in for Christmas Day 2020. Four years after numero uno.

No word on what will take the July 2018 slot Pets 2 left vacant, but... Yeah, sequels sequels sequels.

Forget your old complaints about DreamWorks being sequel-heavy, forget the "Pixar is a sequel factory now!" schlop. Illumination has gleefully taken the cake. Outside of an already-adapted Dr. Seuss story, their slate is sequels and franchise entries. So far, they've already released two sequels... All within the span of five years. Unless an original miraculously finds its way into July 2018, this is what we're stuck with. What the heck's going on with Johnny Express and Flanimals? So much for a push for more original stuff. PR-friendly words...

Now, nothing is ever concrete. It's very possible that Illumination will slate an original (read: something that isn't a sequel, before someone chimes in) in-between two of the three sequels. They have nothing else slated for 2019, so maybe Johnny Express can worm its way into a fall slot and give us something cool. Something to off-set the barrage of sequels. I don't dislike sequels, but three in a row? C'mon.

You could bring up the fact that DreamWorks did a three-in-a-row once... Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots (yeah yeah, spin-off! Still a franchise entry, though), and Madagascar 3. All released back-to-back, all were pretty well-received. I found all three to be strong pictures. It's a good point! To be fair, many an animation fan in 2011 looked at Puss in Boots - coming off the heels of the relatively unwanted and safe-as-vanilla Shrek Forever After - and deemed it unnecessary. Kung Fu Panda 2 was highly anticipated because of how good the first one was, whereas I think we kind of treated Madagascar 3 as an "oh well, they had to make it" kind of movie.

That being said, we got the three-in-a-row because of scheduling issues. In 2009, DreamWorks' 2010-2012 slate was a whole lot different. The same is true of Sony Pictures Animation. The Smurfs 2, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, and Hotel Transylvania 2 all opened back-to-back as well. Leave out Goosebumps, and you actually get four in a row, with Smurfs: The Lost Village. The streak is ironically going to be broken by The Emoji Movie. In Sony's case, it was two things... At one point, 2014 was supposed to house a feature called The Familiars, which would've put it between Cloudy 2 and Hotel Transylvania 2. At another time, Sony Animation's 2014 film was going to be Genndy Tartakovsky's Popeye. Second... There was a complete management overhaul not too long ago. Their slate looked a whole lot different before the late 2014 hack and subsequent switcheroos.

I think it's a me problem as well, because Illumination kind of frustrates me to be honest. I think their movies show potential and have some charm, but end up feeling very plastic and corporate. Plus their only Dr. Seuss adaptation (for now) is another issue. I like that they put out two original, half-decent movies this year, but they can do better. For a studio run by one guy that keeps its budgets down, they really play it safe. Despicable Me, as far as I'm concerned, is their only genuinely good film. But like all overhyped things, it took on a form of its own that can be somewhat annoying when crammed down your throat during a period of time. Minions, Minions, Minions... Screaming yellow tictacs, their designs so generic, yet people love them so much. So much for their "animation is for kids" attitudes, they find joy in the simplest of animated characters.

I don't hate the Minions, I think they're a lot of fun in the first Despicable Me, because they didn't overuse them in that film. In part deux, yeah, they're more prominent and the film's could've-been-great story about the kids wanting a mother takes a backseat. Despicable Me 3's teaser intrigues me because the Minions only appear for like a few seconds, the trailer's all Gru and the new villain.

I'll put aside my bias for a few seconds. Minions 2 could work if it's still set before the events of Despicable Me. The first spin-off ends with them ending up with Gru, so the sequel could be about them and their relationship with Gru throughout his childhood. I'm not saying that Gru is some hyper-compelling character who needs all this backstory (the stuff with his mother rejecting him was enough), but in this world of "everything needs a sequel", might as well salvage it in some way.

Sing 2's existence doesn't bother me, but where do they go from there? Same thing with The Secret Life of Pets 2. They could use the sequels to explore new avenues and experiment, but they didn't do that with Despicable Me 2, which leads me to believe that they'll just be business-as-usual entries that gross a billion dollars each and Universal/Comcast/Illumination goes home happy. Hey, it's business, I get it... But I still think they should even things out a little bit.

Despite the fact that these things reel in money, maybe I wouldn't be as ornery if they only announced Sing 2 and pushed Pets 2 - already a known thing - back. Minions 2 in-between both, instead of an original, kind of irks me a bit.

What say you?

Dashing to the Front: 'The Incredibles 2' Moves Up!

Talk about a big switcheroo, Pixar has played musical chairs with two of their upcoming sequels.

The Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4 have swapped spots. The Incredibles 2 is now set to open on June 15, 2018, while Toy Story 4 - being pushed back for the second time - will open on June 21, 2019...

Honestly, I'm not surprised that The Incredibles 2 has surged ahead in development. Director/writer Brad Bird is a lightning-fast problem solver, a skill that he probably got from his days on The Simpsons. Exhibit A is the first Incredibles, which he worked on for four years, most Pixar films take longer journeys to the big screen. Exhibit B is Ratatouille. In early 2005, the Pixar brass removed Jan Pinkava from the 5-year-old project, and that was around 2 1/2 years before the picture's summer 2007 debut. Bird turned it around so fast, and the resulting movie... You wouldn't even think for a second that it had all those troubles!

The Hollywood Reporter implied that Bird's Walt-like method was indeed the reason why these two sequels were swapped. An "accelerated production schedule", the insiders say.

Toy Story 4, with its new summer 2019 date, will nearly coincide with the 20th anniversary of Toy Story 2. Some are reading the delay as a bad sign, thinking that Toy Story 4 is having multiple story troubles and might be beyond saving. I get that a lot of us don't want Toy Story 4 (I wouldn't flinch if it were cancelled tomorrow), but I think it's simple: Incredibles 2 surged ahead, Bird knows what he's doing, and there's a huge demand for a sequel. Toy Story already got two sequels and spin-offs, this is the first Pixar-made Incredibles anything in years. They probably figure that we can wait for another Toy Story, and that a lot of folk have been waiting a long, long, long time for an Incredibles follow-up.

The old D23 poster, I know.

Toy Story 4, should it keep its current release date, will have taken 7 years to make. That's not unusual for a Pixar film. Let's keep in mind that WALL-E, counting all its early iterations, took fourteen years to get to the big screen. Some projects come together faster than others, and if Pixar needs more time to really make what is actually one of their riskiest film, that's fine. Toy Story 4 has a tall order to fill, and that's living up to one of the rare perfect trilogies, and being the follow-up to what was such a perfect ending. Maybe a whole story change is in order right now (I'll be brutally honest, I don't really dig the whole idea of Bo Peep being pushed back into the story), or they're trying their damnedest to make something impossible work.

Or maybe, as a friend of mine suggested, it's because of director John Lasseter. Lasseter, ever since the acquisition ten years ago, has been a super-busy man. Not only is he running Pixar, but also Walt Disney Animation Studios, DisneyToon Studios, and he's also a key person in the theme parks and elsewhere. I was shocked when he said he was directing the film, because he really doesn't have all the time for that... Or does he? I know he directed Cars 2 from his iPad in less than a year, and that movie was a mess. To be hands-on, he'd either have to put some duties aside, or really multi-task like a pro.

Before anyone brings it up, I'm aware that Josh Cooley is a co-director on the picture. At Pixar, however, a co-director is not necessarily a second director. It's more like the director who handles things on the lower deck of the ship. Lasseter's Walt Disney Animation Studios uses this model, but often times, more than one person is a main director. Take Zootopia for example: Main directors were Byron Howard and Rich Moore, and there was one co-director: Jared Bush. Perhaps Toy Story 4 needs a second "main" director, so why not move Cooley to the position?

Who knows.

What say you?

Onward, Herd: 'Shaun the Sheep Movie 2' Beginning Pre-Production in January

Are ewe surprised? Shaun the Sheep Movie, based on Aardman's highly successful stop-motion TV series, is getting a sequel...

In addition to getting outstanding critical reception, Aardman's Shaun the Sheep Movie grossed $106 million at the worldwide box office against its tiny $25 million budget. Lionsgate's piss-poor handling of the film in the US ultimately did not matter, and it's technically Aardman's first real smash since Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. See, Flushed Away and Arthur Christmas failed to double their budgets, and The Pirates! barely doubled its budget. It's good to see that Aardman had a super-profitable film again.

No shock, they are going to move forward with a sequel, with Richard Starzak set to return to the director's chair. Pre-production is set to begin in January...

Rejoice, the Shaun The Sheep movie is getting a sequel! The original director starts pre-production work in January.https://t.co/rDnrpQNUQn pic.twitter.com/RewrH1Csqm

— Den Of Geek (@denofgeek) October 25, 2016

Which makes it seem like it'll be Aardman's next after Early Man, which is pegged for a January 2018 release. Whatever happened to the sequel to Wallace & Gromit? Or that Cat Burglars project? Either way, it's a smart move, and it's sure to be just as fantastic as the original. This will be Aardman's first-ever theatrical animated sequel feature. Presumably 20 years after the release of their first feature!

Anyways, good news all-around, more Shaun, more stop-motion, more Aardman. What say you?

Sequel Powers: Michael McCullers Writing 'Shrek 5' and 'Hotel Transylvania 3'

As Shrek 5 gets closer and closer to release, whenever that may be, we hear a little bit more about it...

Michael McCullers, confirmed in an interview with Trolls and Shrek Forever After directors Mike Mitchell and Walt Dohrn, is writing the script. From this, we can assume that those directors aren't tackling the ogre's fifth entry. Apparently McCullers came up with the story's idea, too. Who is McCullers? He wrote the two Austin Powers sequels, and has also written DreamWorks' forthcoming The Boss Baby.

This is good news to me. A little fresh blood, and someone who worked on another successful comedy series spearheaded by Mike Myers, is a good fit for Shrek. McCullers could perhaps weave some of that Austin Powers sense of humor into Shrek, which I think has been a tired series for a loooong, loooong while. (Yes folks, I'm the odd duck that doesn't think Shrek 2 is anything more than just decent.)

Getting his feet wet with animation, McCullers is also set to write Hotel Transylvania 3 for Sony Animation, which does have a concrete release date. That's also good news I think, because I wasn't fond of the first one, and apparently numero due suffered from the same problems: Great direction by Genndy Tartakovsky at odds with the Adam Sandler brigade's writing. Hopefully the third one is a step in the right direction and is a good animated comedy, not 90 minutes of noise with a mostly insincere, box-checking story slapped onto it.

It's interesting to see McCullers transition into animation at this stage in his career. He had previously contributed additional script material to DreamWorks' own Mr. Peabody & Sherman. Now tapped to write some real biggies, I can only imagine what he lands from there.

What say you?