t was confirmed with the green band at the beginning that Disney was only screening a trailer. What a trailer though! From this trailer we get the first glimpse of what the story of Tron: Legacy will actually be. From what I gathered from the very brief 2 and a half minute trailer, the story will revolve around Kevin Flynn’s (Jeff Bridges) son, Sam, played by Garrett Hedlund. The whereabouts of Flynn are unknown but a cryptic message (delivered by Bruce Boxleitner) is left for Sam bringing him to the old Flynn’s Arcade. His search for his father is inside the video game, Tron, where we last saw him 28 years ago. Once in the game, we (the audience) were amazed by the 3D images of this world. Expanding and updating this video game world is simply amazing, especially in 3D and in IMAX.

All of the old favorites were there: the light cycles, light discs, the battle ships and the spectacular recognizers. Can I use the word “sexy” to describe this trailer? Yes, I can! It is as if, the director of Tron Legacy, Joseph Kosinski, physically took the cast and crew into this video game and began to shoot a movie. It looks that good! A world that is a mix between The Matrix meets, well… Tron. This got the audience really excited for the upcoming sequel. But the audiences excitement quickly turned into disappointment when the release date was revealed at the very end. December 17th 2010 is the official release date for Tron Legacy.

This begs the question: Why did Disney have this event in the first place? The trailer was going to be released next week in front of Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland. The movie isn’t coming out for another 10 months. How soon is too soon to create hype? I guess it’s never too soon to create hype considering this movie was featured at The San Diego Comic Con for the last 3 years. And with the success with Avatar and Avatar Day, maybe Disney would benefit from the very early buzz. Even if it was for only 2 and a half minutes. And only played once. I guess any press IS good press.

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Icy, frozen streets could not keep me or Matt Patches from getting to the Lincoln Square IMAX theater in Manhattan this morning. I had won a “PitCell” ticket on Tron Legacy’s viral website FlynnLives and even though the rumor was it was “just a trailer” and hardly a replay of Avatar Day, we were stoked.

Yes, it was just a trailer. A teaser trailer. But *what* a teaser trailer.

Spoilers warning!

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The film will use of the same computer technology employed to age and de-age Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

“It was challenging, in that I got a little taste of this new technology of acting what they call ‘in the volume’ and making movies without cameras,” Bridges said in a group interview Wednesday in Beverly Hills, Calif., where he was promoting the drama Crazy Heart. “It’s a completely different deal. That was kind of a challenge. It was great getting back with my old buddy, [original Tron director] Steven Lisberger, and Bruce Boxleitner.” Boxleitner, who played the dual roles of Alan Bradley and Tron in the original film, will appear in the sequel as an age-appropriate Bradley.

Fans got a taste of Bridges’ mysterious dual role in the original teaser for Tron Legacy, which screened two Comic-Cons ago (embedded below). The teaser gives a sense of how they’ve updated familiarTron effects, such as the light cycles and flying discs, but Bridges said that’s only the beginning of what’s in store for Tron Legacy.

“All that technology that we were going to use in the movie itself is used in the trailer,” Bridges continued. “It wasn’t as highly polished as the movie is going to be, but it gives you a little peek into what you might find. That teaser was something they do kind of often with movies, and I think it’s a good idea. The Coen brothers told me they did it with making Blood Simple. Before they even shoot the movie at all, they shoot the trailer of the movie, as if it was already made, and then they use that to entice the financiers. So, even though it was a Disney property, Disney wanted them to shoot this pretty expensive trailer. I don’t know how much it cost, but it was pretty expensive.” The teaser footage was actually test footage that won’t likely appear in the finished movie.

In Tron Legacy, Kevin Flynn’s son, Sam (Garrett Hedlund), goes back into the digital world to find his lost father. Olivia Wilde and Michael Sheen co-star as programs living in the world of computer programs. Boxleitner also reprises his role from the original Tron. Lisberger collaborates as a producer. Joseph Kosinski directs the new vision of Tron.

“I used to love to pretend when I was a kid,” Bridges said. “Here’s a movie that they say, ‘You get to play a guy who gets sucked inside a computer.’ Ooh, yeah. Use all the modern technology that’s available today, [and] the same goes with the sequel, except all the technology that we’re using in that makes the old one look like an old black-and-white TV show or something. Gosh, it’s amazing what they’ve got going on this. I can’t wait to see it all pasted together.”

Tron Legacy has completed principal photography but will not be finished with post-production effects until its release, currently slated for December 2010.

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One of the most anticipated films of 2011 is “Tron Legacy,” the sequel to the 1982 sci-fi movie “Tron.” Disney didn’t disappoint fans during their 3-D panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday.

Filmmakers and members of the cast, including Jeff Bridges reprising his role as Kevin Flynn, introduced footage revealing that the story revolves around Kevin’s son Sam.

“I go on search for my father and find myself in this crazy world,” said actor Garrett Hedlund, who plays Sam Flynn.

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Since last year’s geek gathering, fans were teased by the return of Tron, the 1982 film that put Jeff Bridges into a live-action, CG hybrid that developed quite the cult following. 

A sequel is ready to give the fans what they want, and Disney’s Hall H panel provided a sampling of Tron 2’s Light Cycle goodness. TRON producers Sean Bailey and Steve Lisberger greeted an enthusiastic crowd with concept art, kicking off with a first-look (in 3-D) at the new title treatment.

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Screencrave.com interview with Garrett Hedlund.

For Garrett and Olivia, what was your entry point to Tron? Was it something that you watched growing up?

Garrett Hedlund: It’s kind of unique how I did it because I was working on my first film and I’d ended up watching Tron for the first time in Malta on a balcony in an alley, and you sort of have this slight kind of instinct at some point. There’s something really going on about Watchmen and about working with all the guys, I was really excited that way, I was really moved when somebody introduced me, I was kind of — it was a great time and even more sort of surreal to be working with all these guys, it’s crazy for me.

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Thursday, July 23, Walt Disney Pictures will present unseen footage “Tron 2.0″ at San Diego Comic Con 2009, but before the panel takes place, producer Sean Bailey has shared interesting details about the forthcoming sequel. To MTV News, the executive producer of “Gone Baby Gone” insisted that this 1982’s film sequel will serve as a “stand-alone sequel”, but still stays true to the original.

“You don’t have to know the ‘82 movie to come in and appreciate and enjoy this one,” Bailey explained. “That said, we accept what happened in the ‘82 movie happened in ‘82. Our movie is set in 2010. We built a mythology that spans the intervening 28 years of, ‘Here’s what we think happened with Kevin Flynn and with [nefarious software corporation] ENCOM and all those principle characters. Here’s what we think happened inside the Tron universe and in the real world.”

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TRON (title not final) (In Disney Digital 3D™)

TRON is a 3D high-tech adventure set in a digital world that’s unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. Sam Flynn (GARRETT HEDLUND), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (JEFF BRIDGES), looks into his father’s 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 Kevin’s loyal confidant (OLIVIA 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.

A remake of Disney’s “Tron” is in the works, and they’ve signed a lead actor: Garrett Hedlund.

He’s had roles in “Troy,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Four Brothers,” and “Eragon,” and also starred opposite Lindsay Lohan, Jane Fonda and Felicity Huffman in “Georgia Rule.”
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There are a couple of new TRON updates. The sequel, due out in 2011, will reunite Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner nearly 30 years after the original, and will pair them with a trio of actors who weren’t even born when the first TRON was released.

We already knew that Olivia Wilde and Beau Garrett will be the eye candy, and now The Hollywood Reporter says that Garrett Hedlund will take over the lead role, playing “a man who finds himself pulled into the world of a computer and retracing the steps of a character from the original movie named Kevin Flynn.” Hedlund has appeared in Troy, Friday Night Lights, Four Brothers, and Death Sentence in recent years.

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