An Interview with Steven Lisberger - TRON 2.0 -- Prepare To Drool!!!!

tron is an amazing film, a truly astonishing film in many many ways. and yes, it is also very. very good, and i'm not saying 'good' like todays films where morons walk out of a cinema and say 'mib 2 was good' or 'blade was good', tron is a film that can be dissected and analysed forever, just as any work of art can.

Jesus Deep Fried Christ, I love me some Tron.

TRON 2.0 WILL KICK THE MATRIX's ARSE LIKE A BAT AGAINST A FLY. P.S. THE MATRIX IS COOL BUT IS NO WHERE NEAR TRON/GHOST IN THE SHELL/STAR WARS/DARK CITY TRON THIS!

... and it's called THE MATRIX!

I somehow imagine "Tron 2.0" (whatever the title may be) to be an explosion of color, ... perhaps depending on the environment our main character(s) are in. (Anyone out there used to watch the t.v. show "Reboot"???) With today's incredible variation of video games and the speedy excelleration of technology, etc... people can really let their imaginations fly with the sequel to a film like "Tron". I'm curious. Will it be obvious what is computer generated and what is not? Or will it have more in common with "The Matrix"???

Nostalgia's a powerful force, but is TRON really that good? Yes, the graphics were revolutionary at the time, but it's still got a pretty perfunctory plot and almost non-existent characterisation. And the problem with the sequel will be in terms of visual design - when CG can now pretty much replicate reality, how do you differentiate between the world inside the computer and the world outside? If you don't, then, yes, you basically have The Matrix without the king fu (not such a bad idea, actually).

I found my old Atari 2600 with woodgrain finish in a closet and have been playing this game for weeks. It's damn addictive but oh the joy. Good to see this project hasn't been dumped on the scrapheap. What's this gag order BS? Sounds like Disney owns his ass. Maybe they're the new Master Control. That bit about Jeff Bridges coming back sounds cool. I hope it happens. How can Tron 2 be coming out next year if it's still in script stage? This thing is at least two years away.

What the hell does that mean, anyway? sk

...was in '84 or '85, and I saw it while trippin' on some really good acid. The first viewing was really weird because the tape was in LP (4-hour) mode, and the cheap rental VCR we were using only played in SP (2-hour) mode. The VCR somehow managed to decode both the video and audio in spite of the format mismatch, but this resulted in a very fast play that was very hard to handle in the mental shape that I was in. We had a friend bring over a better VCR later that night, and I was then able to view the movie at its correct speed. Well, I haven't tripped in over 10 years (and don't have any plans to drop again any time soon), but I am looking forward to Tron 2.0. Hopefully, they will have a decent concept and script for this project. E.

The Matrix is actually more like a Tron 3.0 if you think about it. 2.0 could be more like the evolution of cyberspace from the original film, but man is still in control. Because of technological advances images are more realistic than ever but not yet up to the supposed realism of the Matrix. I'm thinking 2.0 is sort of a mid-point.

I first saw TRON back in '82 when I was eleven, and thought it was fan-freaking-tastic. I saw it on TV in the nineties and I was surprised to see how well it held up. I was supposed to go out that night, but I really wanted to sit there and watch it instead. I've watched it a few times since then, and I think it's a great movie. For me, it works on the adventure level. It's an ALICE IN WONDERLAND/WIZARD OF OZ story driven by Jeff Bridge's cheeky charisma. I'd be curious to re-enter the TRON surreal plane of existence, and see how things have changed.

...I'm afraid that I do not understand your point. E.

...I'' afrai' tha' ' d' no' understan' you' poin'. '.

"Tron went down so well thanks to a generation paranoid about these weird computer things." It was the computer-paranoid older generation that did not want anything to do with TRON ... anyone remember that this was a box-office disapointment? It only grossed $33 million, about enough to break even. Only on home video and in the video acrades did it hit big. It was the computer-happy videogame addicts and chiphead youngsters that made TRON the popular classic it is today (the Intellivision and Midway video games were successful despite the low box office). Today's audience is more primed than ever for a new take on TRON, esp. if they keep the topical, satirical elements intact. TRON correctly predicted the revolutionary freedoms of personal computers and the Internet at a time when the world was still ruled by the mainframe, all thanks to a few chipheads working out of their garages (the first Apple was constructed at home out of parts that Steve Jobs had "borrowed" from his gig at video game maker Atari). A new TRON will provide a chance to comment on how far we've come since then. "Nostalgists will get a kick, but the kids largely won't care" ... nonsense. Every kid I know loves the movie, and looks forward to 2.0. Oh, and if your face-slapping instructions to MisterE are some kind of high-handed moralizing about the evils of drug use, keep it to yourself. He said it was a long time ago and he doesn't do it anymore. He's just telling a story that happens to illustrate TRON's cult status as a "drug" film due to it's trippy visuals, much as 2001 was 15 years before. That's just a fact of history, not an endorsement. Get a life.

So that distinguishes it from any other film how?

and it is absolutely brilliant. brilliant. it still looks amazing, it still holds a deep fascination for me. the Matrix, on the other hand, looked stale and tired when it was first released. it was a whole hog rip-off of Tron, it was humorless, bland and overimportant; it had no heart, no soul no reason to exist. the gimicky effects had already been seen in several car commercials, HK films and videogames. in short: it was derivative, boring and ugly. it sucked. Tron, on the other hand, still fills me with wonder. it had real heart, and the amount of work that went into the film is truly staggering. it boggles my mind that the film did so (relatively) poorly when it was released, while the Matrix was such a huge hit. i guess because, at the time, Tron was a visionary film whereas the Matrix was pedestrian and easy for teh Lowest Common Denominator to understand. i can't wait to see what they will do with the Tron 2.0. i don't know if it will retain the same fascination as the originals, but my assumption is that it will be good... certainly better than the Matrix Revulsions and Regurgitations or whatever the hell they are called.

I saw Tron on its original run in an empty theater in New Hampshire with my deadbeat dad. I was 12, and despite the cool visuals, I kind of thought it sucked. Well, recently I decided to give it another chance on DVD, and felt pretty much the same way. I mean, the geek in me can enjoy it viscerally, but plot wise and character wise, it is an abomination. Its filled with techno-speak that no kid could possibly follow, especially a 12 year old in the early eighties. (This was the target audience at the time...and the reason it bombed.) The plot is largely indecipherable (sp?) and the characters do not connect with the viewer on any level. But, this is just my opinion... no offense Harry, or anyone else.

Lisberger should direct a sequel to his '87 smash "Hot Pursuit" with John Cusack. Wow, aren't we all dying to see his continuing adventures stalking girlfriends to tropical locales?

I saw Tron when it was originally released in the early eighties, and I thought it was just about the most amazing thing I had ever seen. Sure, my parents had NO clue what it was all about, but us kids KNEW at an instinctive level that this was an important film. Remember the first time you saw Star Wars ? (if you were old enough to see it the first time out ). That's what seeing Tron felt like, but for me even more so. As for Tron 2 ? I am in two minds about this. On the one hand I am thinking "hell yeah bring it on !!" and on the other hand I am thinking leave it alone, don't spoil our memories of a truly great movie. After all, we have already had Lucas rape our childhood with his godawful Phantom Crap and Attack of the Turds, we don't need another symbol of our youth destroyed.

"Moby, you can get stomped by Obie" ... Eminem is referring to Obie Trice, a rapper on his label and in the song "Without Me"

I heard the sequel was going to be like Apocalypse Now but with Jeff Bridges as the Kurt character, and in a computer instead of Viet Nam (no shit Sherlock). Sounds superb to me.

That makes more sense than a bizarre Andy Griffith reference. sk

"Gotta love this neon, brother."

Drool? Drool? Drool? over what?OVER WHAT?

I would argue that the term "trippin'" would stand as a late-'70s/early-'80s colloquialism rather than an bona fide example of bad grammar (as in "Keep on Truckin'," etc.). In any case, your point was not made clear, except that it was mean-spirited in nature. I never said TRON was my favorite film (the flaws in storytelling and character development are many) and I never said I was a "chiphead"; I was merely elaborating on the film's cultural impact. It was the first film to expound on the notion of "cyberspace" well before William Gibson coined the term, complete with anthropomorphic avatars representing human users in the Real World (suddenly THE MATRIX doesn't seem so revolutionary in concept, does it?). Flaws and all, it remains a groundbreaking film. By the way, it's not that you expressed your opinion ... it's that you acted like a jerk doing it. Now slap yourself in the face.

Strictly in terms of aesthetics, it's a minor work of genius, but let's not get carried away calling it a Great Movie. I doubt anyone enjoys TRON for its sharply-written dialogue or gripping narrative. Realistically, it's all about the light cycles.

Your posts are riddled with grammatical errors. Differing opinions are fine, but don't be a pedantic dick.

I'm looking forward to this movie, at this point. TRON got me interested in the style of music played as the soundtrack. I found I liked Synergy and Suzanne Ciani's "Seven Waves".. She was responsible for the music of the old Xenon pinball machine, and for years and years, I didn't know anything about who did it. I wonder if the new movie is a big success, would a TRON ride be put into Tomorrowland at Disneyland? The only thing like that I remember seeing is when the Peoplemover's "speed tunnel" was changed into a TRON section ("You are now entering the user grid of TRON" or some such). I'm all for getting batch-'digitalised' with a crowd and walking through an indoor queue line with blacklit circuitry designs on the walls and spooky ambient music. As long as the ride itself was neat.

Before anybody says anything, yes, I know the soundtrack was by Wendy Carlos (and Journey).

Bickering back and forth at each other over grammar errors, and who's opinion is right. Fucking say what you want to say, and let it be. Don't you have anything better to do, then just spit and spat about "Tron"? "Tron" was a revolutionary movie in special effects respects. The script wasn't academy award material, but still enjoyable as a film. But then again, what is AA material? "Monsters Ball"?!!

to those who say that TRON was lacing in character developement, i say poo upon you all. we had all we really needed. we all new exactly of what Flynn was capable of from the start of the film. seeing as how he was the star of the movie, i think he was really the only one who needed the developement. well there was TRON himself, but there is only so much emotion and character you can play up when you are a computer program. anyway, i can't wait to see the sequel. i am only 21 years old and have a huge love for the movie. i've loved it since i was a little boy and i understand it either way. thats what made TRON so accessable. its so easy to understand. it doesn't keep you guessing or confused, i.e. the Matrix. dont get me wrong i loved the Matrix, it really was a revolutionary film for the modern day, but it was a little confusing at times and surely not a family movie. TRON is a family movie, i mean it's made by disney for God's sake! this may be the child in me taling, but i thin they should have scenes where they actually do surf the net, or they get the music they listen to for the soundtrac from music scored off sites lie kazaa or dare i say even napster. i dunno, i may have just completely discredited myself, but we have to admit, the possibilities for TRON 2.0 are far more than endless. testicleez out

Great interview but who chose the font? Something a little more readable would be nice.

http://www.gltron.org/ . Enjoy

The baddie of Tron (and Time Bandits, and Time after Time). You know you love him! He's been aging into a lot of non-evil roles lately (Planet of the Apes, ST 6), let him trot out the villainous sneer one last time. And give Bruce Boxleitner a job too. After Babylon 5 ended what has he been up to? Probably drinking Long Island iced teas in the backyard while his wife Melissa Gilbert (star of Little House on the Prairie) slaves away in Infomercial Land.

"When I walked out of The Matrix I had no clue. When I bought the DVD and watched it 10 times in a row, I had no clue. But then one day, the powers that be at Dinsey released the Tron Special Edition DVD. Of course, I bought it immediately. At that point... at the end of that viewing, I sat there with my mouth hanging wide open and hundreds of thoughts racing through my head. I ran out and told all my friends of my discovery, but they all slapped me silly and called me a geek. I know it to be true. Here is what I discovered: 1) THE M.C.P. develops over the year to become what we know to be, THE MATRIX 2) All the RED GUARDS are the AGENT programs 3) AGENT SMITH is what SARK evolves into. It was his next step to control the computers, before the computers (MCP/MATRIX) took hold of him. 4) DUMONT, is equivilant to ORACLE 5)and MOST convincing is that MORPHEUS spoke of the previous "ONE", that NEO was the second "One". Well, guess what USER was the FIRST "THE ONE"? FLYNN!!! DUH!! FLYNN was the first ONE, the one who could control the Matrix, the MCP, could turn the tide... There is so much there, it makes me absolutely giddy. The MCP found a way to get back online and with the invent of new virtual technologies and a worldwide netowrk, the MCP was able to branch out grow from a simple video game system to a worldwide virtual world that took out not only his allies, but all the users that could ever harm him. EXCEPT for the ONE user that developed him in the first place, that was able to take him down... FLYNN/NEO/THE ONE. I don't care what Disney or WB say. To me this creates such a full dynamic universe and it makes me love it so much more. Whether or not they meant to do it, I love it!! Awesome."

First people have to remember this was a Disney film and much of the animation was done by traditional cel animation. So this was basically a hip version of Mary Poppins. And the MCP was the traditional "all powerful at the end" Disney villan. The cast was great, David Warner is a great 2 demensional villan, Bruce Boxleitner great as the square jawed hero, and Cindy Morgan...oh Cindy Morgan. This film is a perfect example of fantasy films of the early to mid eighties and why they were all so great. The effects technology was changing and evolving year to year and so each years film and different technology. This film is a perfect example of the blending of many different effects technologies of the time, to create something truly unique in the history of cinema. You don't get that with cgi. Finally we have the themes of the film. It succesfully managed to blend real (computer) science with fantasy. The struggles between the Mainframe corporate run computer and the small guy trying to make it a free system was amazing. The idea that each program is actually created by real people and that alot of the person is in the program is a very intruiging idea. Then setting the programs all up as characters who have heard myths about their God Users is a wonderful fantasy element. Okay my Mom is yelling at me I have to go.

"So this was basically a hip version of Mary Poppins." LOL! I never heard of TRON being described that way before, but you do have a point. Just to clarify the "traditional cel animation" comment ... the backlit style of cel animation was not new to TRON, but it was the first time (outside of TV commercials) that the effect had been used extensively, esp. in combination with rotoscoped live-action footage. So the way it was employed was rather new and tremendously difficult to do, but it meshed well with the CGI. One more clarification, Disney did little other than provide financing ... TRON started as an independent project developed by Lisberger, and was shot and completed fairly free of Disney's input.

It had to be said.

At least, it's the only movie I've ever seen twice, in back to back viewings, the first time I saw it in the theater. And with my parents, no less. I was 13 at the time, and it was that compelling. The comments in this interview ring true - Tron was thematically and artistically visionary. Tron (1982), along with Blade Runner (1982), actually predated the seminal text work of the cyberpunk genre, William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984), by 2 years. Probably Gibson's earlier short story warm-ups and other proto-cyberpunk works were on the minds of these movies' creators. I also suspect these two powerful visions - Tron's Yin to Blade Runner's Yang - helped catalyze the emerging cyberpunk genre into modern "science fiction of the next 20 minutes".

Sorry Harry. I couldn't resist. Go ahead...take a swing back. I deserve it.

This is a film that can stand a sequel using lots of up-to-date CGI. The original today looks pretty awful, due to the limitations of the graphics tools available in the early 80s. The film is also pretty stilted in the acting and dialog departments. Jeff Bridges is its one true saving grace. Oh, and that music! Wow! A TRON 2 couldn't hurt. Freddy P. or Josh H. can take over the lead easily enough.

is to get Bridges to reprise the role of Flynn. And for God's sake, do not turn this into some Hackers meets Dawson's Creek bullshit technobabble movie. I for one am tired of seeing a slow but sure trend of wonderful movies from my childhood being fucked with and destroyed. Star Wars, E.T., and now this. What's next, a remake of Goonies? Gremlins? The Dark Crystal? DarthToadie has spoken......

according to the documentary on the DVD, TRON was snubbed at the Oscars for special effects because, at the time, using computers was thought as "cheating"! imagine that! and the way they described the actual process: of having to enter in thousands of numbers to plot vector points BY HAND, boggles my mind. the amount of work and heart that went into that film is truly staggering. TRON is the great unsung hero of the olde skool EFX pictures (you know, when you actually had to write a story to back up the visuals). and yes, the story was perfect. it had all the essential elements of the classic Cambellian heros tale. like, for instance, Star Wars. to criticize the film on the basis of the fact that the characters were one-dimensional is ludicrous -- they were supposed to be that way. they are templates, archetypes, icons. they represent ideas, not fully flushed out human characters. do you mean to say that the Matrix had deep, insightful characterizations and a believeable dramatic plot? i didn't think so. just because the heros dress in leather and pretend they are hip doesn't mean that it's "deep" and "serious". if anything, the fact that TRON had this sort of naive quality to it, makes it a more powerful and touching film. but, seriously, these aren't Mike Leigh films were talking about here. it's pulp, it's pop, and unlike the visually stunning poopoo we have shoved down our throats every summer, TRON was exceptionally good in this context.

you made my day, man. i wasn't drinking any fluids when i read your post but if i had been drinking hot coffee (god forbid) i'm sure it would have spurted out my nasal passages. hopefully my fart-guffaw won't cost me my job...

I got such a kick reading this transcript. Talk about 80s nostalgia! I was just a wee tyke when Tron came out, and I remember staring in awe at the visuals of Tron in a movie theater in Denver. I have to laugh now considering that virtually every movie has some element of CGI in it, rendering the technique somewhat mundane now. I also remember salivating whenever I was allowed to play Battlezone in this video arcade at a mall that doesn't even exist anymore (it was bulldozed a couple of years ago). My pot-smoking uncle (everybody has one) knew his kids and nephews loved Battlezone so much that he decided to steal the videogame with a couple of his drunk buddies. I remember sleeping over one night and here comes my high uncle trundling through the living room door with this console on his back, the other side being lifted by this other drunk dude. He took the entire 300-400 lb. console and placed it in his living room right next to his lazy boy lounger. Whenever I spent the night at his house I would spend my Friday nights in their living room eating popcorn and taking turns with my cousins at playing the game. The only thing is my uncle was smart enough to rip the game off from an arcade, but not smart enough to figure out how to activate the game without depositing a quarter, so he had to keep a jar full of quarters on the console to get it to work. He would get the quarters back, of course, and so this detail just added another quirky element to my 80s nostalgia. Thanks for the ride lady! Thanks for the ride!

what makes it different is that not every film is a work of art!!!

It's Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center). It's "black light composits," not "back light composits." And finally a "bit" is still the fundamental unit of storage in a computer.

Tron did it first, The Matrix just made it cooler. I want to see Tron 2.0 blow away Neo and pals!

They should have to sit and watch the original several times ! I just hope 2.0 is as good or better than the original !!! Cheers, programs !

Son of Batboy, The intellivision version of Tron:Deadly Discs was at least 6 times better than the ATARI: VCS version! And I cannot wait to see the Multiplayer version of TRON 2.0 from Disney: "Multiplayer games will be based on the idea of gladatorial combat. A multiplayer level will have a set of arenas that people can enter to scuare off against other players. In the middle is a spectator area where you can study potential opponents or just hang out to watch. The objective on a server is to be the guy with the most points on the leaderboard. There are different levels based on environments from the single player game: a corrupted server, an internet city, the old TRON wold, and even the disappearing rings arena from the arcade game." "Wait.... let him fight one of his own kind!"