• Events & Appearances » 2010 » 2010 Comic-Con International – “Tron: Legacy” Panel (x053)

Last summer I was lucky enough to join a small group of journalists in Vancouver to visit the set of ‘Tron: Legacy.’ It’s hard to say exactly how excited I am for the long-awaited follow-up to its groundbreaking but box office-deficient 1982 predecessor – perhaps it will suffice to reveal that I’m currently stretching out a pair of childhood ‘Tron’ Underoos to wear on opening day.

But even if being on this particular set weren’t personally fulfilling, it would no doubt be a professional highlight of the career of virtually any film journalist. An extensive exhibition of the production offices and department designs, followed by interviews with cast and crew members and, finally, a tour of the set itself, offered some of the most comprehensive and revealing behind-the-scenes looks in recent memory. And then there was meeting Daft Punk, although sadly there’s no photographic or audio evidence to confirm that particular personal moment of fulfillment.

While a list could probably climb into triple digits were I to parse out the secrets and slip-ups of the filmmakers (not to mention see the finished film), we’ve assembled a collection of 10 essential details we discovered on the set of ‘Tron: Legacy.’

1. ‘Tron: Legacy’ earns its subtitle precisely because it pays tribute to the landscape and mythology of the original film.
Producer Sean Bailey explained that any follow-up owed an enormous debt to the characters and universe writer-director Steven Lisberger created decades ago. “We felt like we owed, at least in my opinion, a few things: light cycles, Jeff Bridges, lit suits; and most important, I felt like when I went into that movie in 1982, as a kid I just remember the movie screen looking unlike any movie screen I’d ever seen before.”

2. When Bailey recruited first-time director Joe Kosinski to tackle the project, he did so with not only the blessing but also the active participation of original ‘Tron’ creator Steven Lisberger.
Lisberger, who plays a small role in the film, explained in the craft services tent why he declined to take on the follow-up himself. “After 30 years, I don’t want to compete with myself,” he said. “And technically, I am not on the level of Joe Kosinski. Joe has a network of people that he works with, and if I brought my network in, it would be a little bit like one of those Clint Eastwood movies where all the old guys go to space. [But] it’s a generational thing, which is that it’s almost as if Tron was waiting for you guys who were 10 when you saw ‘Tron’ One, to be 40 and have a 10-year-old kid that you could take to ‘Tron’ and say, this is what blew my mind and now I’m going to have it blow your mind.”

3. Jeff Bridges was game to reprise his role as game designer Kevin Flynn after hearing a pitch from Kosinski, but was particularly reassured after hearing that Lisberger would be around to keep things connected to the first film.
Bridges said that Kosinski showed him what he’d previously done, and what he wanted to do on Legacy. “He made this wonderful pitch on the story, where it was going, and that was intriguing to me,” he remembered. “[Then] he showed me his commercial reel. He’s out of commercials, and I saw some of the technology that he had available to him that he could use. The first [movie] was cutting-edge technology at that time, and this one certainly is for this time. And it’s a whole different way of making movies.”

Describing the 26-year span between the release of ‘Tron’ and the start of production on ‘Legacy,’ Bridges revealed that Lisberger’s unpredictability made the process feel like old times. “It seems like we had a long weekend, basically, because Lisberger is very involved in this one,” he said. “Which is great — having the source of the material still engaged. I think it gave us all a lot of pressure, because he’s such a wild cat, but it’s also kind of grounded in that first movie that was so unique and everything.”

4. Although the Tron character –- the guy the franchise is named for — appears to do little in the film, Bailey insists he’s still crucial to the universe and its story.
“Tron the character, and what happened to him, is dealt with in this movie,” Bailey confessed. “And where he ends up is kind of one of our secrets. You see him a couple of times, but he is not the focal point of the movie. The focal points are Sam, this new character Quorra, played by Olivia Wilde, Flynn and Clu, but we certainly deal with Tron and what happened to him and where he ended up. He’s a critical piece in the mythology and he’s a critical piece in how we arrived at this narrative, so he’s dealt with as a character, and we also expand the definition of what Tron means a little bit.”

5. Despite zipped lips from Bailey, Bridges and Lisberger, Garrett Hedlund, who plays Sam Flynn, Kevin’s son, reveals that his character is at the center of the film.
“The film takes place 20 years after Flynn has sort of mysteriously disappeared,” Hedlund revealed. “It starts off kind of with me — this kid [who's] the biggest shareholder in the company at this point and sort of grew up without his father. Alan Bradley kind of always looked after him,” he explained, referring to Kevin’s colleague (and the creator of Tron) in the original film. “Alan pays a visit and sort of ushers me to go to Flynn’s office and check things out. And [Sam] is going to search for his father, and once he gets into this world, the light bikes and the discs and the game grid and all this sort of stuff comes to play.”

6. In perhaps the film’s most effective bit of typecasting, electronic icon Daft Punk is composing the film’s score.
Bailey explained that Daft Punk initially volunteered to participate, but the French duo made sure the film had at least as much integrity as each of their albums. “One of the great blessings of this movie was as soon as people became aware it was really happening we had a lot of incoming phone calls that are the kind of people you dream about going out and trying to get, and Daft Punk was one of those. They called and said, hey, we’d really like to talk.” He admitted that their familiarity with the filmmaking process, much less this particular film, caught him off guard. “I was just really impressed by the kind of artists these guys were, towards on how they design their shows, how involved they are with building their own technology, how much they knew about film, how much they knew about ‘Tron.’ And even though they called us, their vetting of us was as thorough as our vetting of them; we must have met them 10, 11, 12 times before we all agreed to do it together. And it’s been great.”

7. Although 3-D filmmaking has met with mixed success in the last few years, ‘Tron: Legacy’ wasn’t merely shot using the format — it was conceived that way from the ground up.
“The decision to shoot in 3-D was a big one,” Bailey said. “But the other thing we felt we kind of owed [to audiences] was how do we get the screen to look like something we’ve never seen before? And we thought 3-D could be a big part of that, particularly with what we could do in the ‘Tron’ universe with light walls and vehicles. So we felt a little bit of ‘Let’s push — let’s be on the bleeding edge of technology with this movie.’ And, there’s some days where we regret that, [because] often in a movie you have a new piece it’s a challenge in and of itself, and here we have four or five new pieces, and trying to make them all work together for a single shot gets complicated. But we felt that the result would be worth it, and I think it’s going to be. 3-D cameras were a critical part of that.”

8. The teaser trailer shown at Comic-Con two years ago offered proof there was an audience for the sequel, but it also threw down a creative gauntlet for the filmmakers.
Bailey said their initial conversations about developing the project intrigued Disney, but that forced the filmmakers to come through on a still largely untested concept. “We went in and we had this conversation,” he remembered. “We had nothing we could exactly show, but we said we want the faces to be photo-real. We want to create a digital environment that looks like we photographed it, and we’re going to attach these faces to sometimes practical bodies, sometimes wholly CG-animated bodies. And Disney said, we would love a little bit of proof of concept of that, and that ended up being the piece that we showed at Comic-Con.”

9. The technology allowed Bridges to play two versions of himself — at different ages.
Bailey explained the process: “I used all the old footage and old photos as reference for a really talented artist [who] built the most elegant advanced version or anything you might imagine at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum,” he said. “It’s a perfect kind of silicone maquette of Bridges at that age. Digital Domain then takes that and puts it into a machine and gives it the 49 muscles that comprise your expression, and they give that digital 3-D head those same muscle movements digitally. Then Bridges, when he does the performance, he wears a headcam that then tracks those muscles, and so that data is plugged into the head. So ideally, what you end up with is this hopefully-perfect 3-D head of Bridges at that age, and then you have Jeff Bridges’ expressions driving his own digital recreation of his muscles. So whenever you see Clu in the movie, it’s Bridges doing the performance.”

10. Although the time between ‘Tron’ and its sequel made it easy for the filmmakers to introduce Olivia Wilde’s character, Quorra, she thinks the most exciting thing about ‘Legacy’ is, well, its legacy.
Wilde explained that it’s precisely the new technology used to make the film that connects it to its predecessor. “This is the longest time that’s ever passed between an original and a sequel, but it’s parallel and similar in that it’s just as revolutionary for our time,” she said. “The technology that’s going into it has never been seen before. Everything from wardrobe to special effects to lighting to acting, we’re all doing things we’ve never done before. We’re constantly hearing stories from [Bruce Boxleitner, who plays Alan Bradley] or Bridges, and Lisberger, about what they went through to make the original, and how unfamiliar they were with the terms — everything from the term ‘program’ to ‘bit.’ I’m just amazed that they were able to pull it off and with far less resources.”

“The idea of the special effects that they put on in post-production was completely new and they took many risks,” she continued. “I think we have a responsibility to take just as many risks, so that means it’s a hard thing to put together. So when it takes a really long time to make it happen, everybody keeps reminding ourselves, no one said it would be easy to do something revolutionary. And I think that’s kind of exciting.”

This December, moviegoers go back into the machine with “Tron: Legacy,”the sequel from Disney that will be one of the major projects-to-watch at this month’s Comic-Con International. At 11:15 a.m. on July 22, the film will be promoted with a star-studded panel in Hall H, the 6,500-seat room that is the standing-room-only hub of Comic-Con’s Hollywood programming. The panel will consist of director Joe Kosinski, producers Sean Bailey and Steven Lisberger as well as cast members Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Michael Sheen and Bruce Boxleitner. Patton Oswalt will moderate and there will be new footage from the film and, according to Disney, some special surprises.

Olivia will be at the panel on Thursday!

A studio-imposed embargo has now lifted and we can bring you another round of our “Tron Legacy” interviews. Here’s some of what the film’s leading lady Olivia Wilde had to say.

Question: Who do you play?

Olivia Wilde: I play Cora. I’m a close confidant of Jeff Bridges’ character, Flynn. Close personal confidant. That’s about all I can say without ruining it!

Question: Do you have your own entire storyline, or are you just there to support the men?

Wilde: Oh god, no! I’m not just there to support the men, which is what’s so fantastic about this film. I often say that, you know, the reason you see so many … actresses taking television roles is because there are more roles where you can play an independent woman, not just someone’s sister or girlfriend and it’s become rare in film, I think, to play an independent woman. This is one of the films where I get to do that. So, to answer your question, thank god no, I’m not just there!

Question: Were you familiar with “Tron” [before you joined the cast?]

Wilde: For me, “Tron” was something I always knew as a cool, retro, funky thing that I’d seen referenced in everything from music videos to television shows, either on “Family Guy” or… it had become kind of in the same wave of funky ’80s things coming back and being ironic for my generation. I feel that “Tron” was a huge part of that. I was only mildly aware of how revolutionary it really was for its time. About a year ago, when I started talking to [the producers] about doing this film, I became much more familiar with it. That’s when I really learned about it and became even more excited.

For the original “Tron” players, and we’re lucky to have many of them back in the film – it’s so cool – we’re constantly hearing stories from [Bruce] Boxleitner and Bridges and [Stephen] Lisberger about what they went through to make the originals and how unfamiliar they were with the terms. We were saying yesterday that everything from the term “program” to “bit,” these were terms that they were totally unfamiliar with. It sounded totally technologically advanced and foreign, and to us now, it’s every day lingo. I’m amazed that they were able to turn it into a story and something that was entertaining and funny at the time. I’m amazed that they were able to pull it off, and with far less resources.

Question: How is it working with Bridges?

Wilde: Oh, he’s so cool. I mean, he’s The Dude! [Laughs] It doesn’t get cooler than that! It’s funny. [The production crew of] “New Moon” was in town shooting and they wanted to have a bowl off, and I was like, “Bring it on. You know we have The Dude, do you really want to have a bowl off?” He’s amazing. He’s really like a leader. It’s been great for Garrett [Hedlund] and I to work with him so much, to follow his examples. His professionalism is unparalleled. I’ve never worked with anyone so humble and gracious, so it’s really cool to see him put just as much into a sci-fi flick as this as he would into “The Big Lebowski,” a Coen Bros. movie, and anything. I can see why he shone so much in “Iron Man.” I see the way he approaches it. It’s just like a character piece.

Question: What’s a great part of the costume?

Wilde: Well for me what’s cool is I’m completely unrecognizable in my costume. I have, you know, the wig and the makeup and everything. In fact, when I walk in on days when I’m not working — I’m not in full costume, nobody knows who I am. I come in like, “Hi, guys. How’s it going?” They’re like, “Who? Sorry, do you have a badge? No? Get out.” So that’s really cool for me. I think that’s what every actor sort of dreams of being able to do. So my favorite part of it I would say is the ensemble — when it’s together, it’s a complete departure for myself. I don’t recognize myself in dailies or in the mirror, and that kind of frees me.

Question: Is this the first time you’re kicking ass a little bit?

Wilde: This is a first for me, totally, and absolutely not the last. I love it. I really love it. I’m a very passive non-violent person, but there’s something to be said for playing a very strong woman and being able to train yourself to do something that you never thought you’d be able to do is one of the highlights of being an actor.

From MTV

“I won’t complain ’cause we’re really lucky to get to wear them,” she said, “but they’re not easy. So whenever we’re sitting there straining or, you know, figuring out how to move in them, Jeff says, ‘Well, you know, in the first film, we wore basically white, you know, white leotards.’ Not easy for any man or woman.”

Apparently her character does more than her fair share of ass-whupping in the film, which required a lot of acrobatics and martial arts training. She also trained on a flight simulator at the U.S. Air Force base in Arizona for the A-10.

“I play Quorra,” she continued. “I’m a close confidant of Jeff Bridges’ character Flynn. Close, personal confidant. I don’t think it will give anything away to say that Joan of Arc was a major inspiration for my character. As far as other films I think there’s something to be said for Natalie Portman’s character in ‘The Professional.’ So I don’t know if you can imagine a mixture between that little girl and Joan of Arc…”

The camera glides through the crowd and around the set on a long crane running on an electric track hanging from the ceiling. A Sony F-35 dual lens camera is contained inside a single metal box on the end of the crane, to enable the 3D shooting. Unlike many recent films that have opted to cheat and post-convert to 3D, Kosinski is shooting with the same Cameron-Pace system used to shoot “Avatar.” It is actually on a motion control rig, the first time its been used, which was mainly installed for a big fight sequence so they could get clean plates.

As each take happens, Kosinski watches the realtime footage on a polarized 3D monitor set up in video village. We got to try out the glasses ourselves, and all agreed the 3D delineates the levels of foreground, middle ground, and background in a way that adds depth and realism. The 3D will only be used in the Tron World, the transition to which will be very similar to the transition from black & white to color in “The Wizard of Oz.” When the director is not there he casually talks shop with his actors and crew, a very calm, assured presence on the set. Occasionally he will consult with Lisberger, who in his costume is enthusiastic, smiling, clearly enjoying himself and in his element.

This is a fully populated sequence, giving the appearance of a speakeasy. You will get to see a cross-section of different inhabitants/programs. Just from the few shots we see, the elegance and restraint of Kosinski’s style is evident. “Lots of energy on this one, lots of crosses… lights on!” he bellows. The lights are controlled by radio, and it is fun to watch everyone’s costume turn on at once.

After the debut of the trailer, and what we saw on set, there is no longer any doubt Tron Legacy will be a milestone visual achievement. Whether this film will ultimately have the emotional impact on audiences the original missed the mark on remains to be seen, but Wilde is very hopeful.

“The first one was more of a cautionary tale,” she says. “So this one is sort of what happens when that cautionary tale has not been heeded. When there’s been 30 years of technology becoming increasingly powerful, where are you left at that point?

“Just in the three months I’ve been working on this, I feel what I’ve learned is like I was saying to Jeff, you have to treat it like it’s a character piece, like it’s any other film. And that it’s fun. I mean this movie should feel like a ride. It should feel like an adventure, and that’s what I think what we’re making, something that people will want to see again and again because it’s enjoyable. It does have emotional weight to it, but it should still feel like a fantastic ride. So I think that’s what we’re doing. And I think — God I’m just so excited!”

Tron Legacy opens in 3D, 2D and IMAX 3D theaters on December 17. You can watch the trailer below!

You can read the whole article at ComingSoon.net

“I use the sword. I’m the only one who uses the sword and then we have the disc and shields as well as weapons,” Wilde reveals excitedly. “So, it’s kind of cool.”

And then, of course realizing it’s a Disney movie, Wilde smiles and adds, “You will be able to buy them soon.”

Stopping by with co-star Garrett Hedlund in skintight black suits highlighted by electric and glowing looking accents before shooting a major action scene, Wilde says she was “amazed” at how the original “Tron” filmmakers were able to be so forward thinking way back in 1984.

“It’s really amazing to me that they didn’t know what they were talking about when they said programs or bits, bits or anything like that,” Wilde insists. “It was all gobbledy-gook for them. And they were able to make it sound fluid. So, that’s pretty impressive to me even when they’re using the desk, the flat computer with the touch screen thing. That to them must have just been so insane and implausible and to us now, it sort of holds up as well. I’d still like a desk that could do that.”

Not much is known about Quorra, Wilde’s character in the long awaited sequel except that she’s connected to the missing Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) and teams up with Flynn’s son, Sam (Garrett Hedlund), to take down an out of control Master Control Program.

Secrecy is important even on an embargoed set visit and Hedlund admitted its easier to keep his lid shut than he expected, “I find it’s a little more therapeutic not being able to talk about it. Cause it’s harder always trying to– like we’d love to share everything. But when you’re constantly– you got the mouse behind you.”

That “mouse” is Disney of course, the studio that was willing to take a big chance that a return to the virtual world of “Tron” could work over a quarter century after the first film became a cult phenomenon. Luckily, director Joseph Kosinski’s vision is aligning for exactly the sort of experience audiences are looking for after James Cameron’s immersive “Avatar.” That’s made “Legacy” one of the most anticipated films this holiday season, but even pre-“Avatar,” Wilde was awed by the 3-D technology the production was using.

“I think what’s cool is that we’re going so far beyond the 3-D,” Wilde says. “[They are] really utilizing all the new technology, technology people haven’t heard of yet so it won’t just be the 3-D that makes it special. I think that’s kind of exciting. We’ve been saying that the movie should– the movie will feel like a ride, which is what people expect now from a film. I mean, people’s home entertainment systems are now so advance why do go to the movies? But ‘Tron’ will be a great reason to go. And I think that’s really fun.”

Audiences will have to judge for themselves with “Tron Legacy” opens nationwide and in IMAX on Dec. 17.

From Hit Fix

Oscar winner Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Michael Sheen and Bruce Boxleitner will join the filmmakers in a Hall H panel that will kick off the con on Thursday, July 21 at 11:15 AM. The studio promises that footage from the December release will be previewed in 3-D as well as some “special surprise guests.” It’s worth noting, notoriously press-shy Daft Punk have provided an original score for “Legacy.”

The annual San Diego pop culture event has already featured “Legacy’ twice before, including a surprise screening of a concept test the filmmakers used to convince the studio to greenlight a sequel to the original 1984 film back in July of 2008. In fact, director Joe Kosinski, producers Sean Bailey and Steven Lisbeger have all gone on record that the reaction to the footage at Comic-Con from the fans in attendance sealed the deal.

Last year, Bridges, Hedlund, Wilde, Kosinski and Lisberger hosted a packed panel, but had no new footage to show as the picture was still in production. Additionally, Disney created a wealth of buzz by re-creating the fictional Flynn’s Arcade from the franchise with 1980s video games and a secret room which revealed a real-life model of the new lightcycle from the film. You can check out photos of the cycle here.

The studio also announced there will be an interactive “Tron” booth on the convention floor with a sneak peek at merchandise including toys, electronics, collectibles, apparel and the new “Tron: Evolution” video game. Exclusive Comic-Con products are also promised.

“Tron Legacy” opens nationwide and on IMAX Dec. 17, 2010. Look for complete Comic-Con coverage on HitFix beginning next month.

From Hit Flix

Official Plot Synopsis:

1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger (Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). It’s a town that lives in fear.

But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known.

Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents—townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors—all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.

From /Film

• Movies » Butter (2011) » On Set – April 28, 2010 (x014)

Wilde will be playing a tattooed stripper with a Betty Page hairdo who’s also the mistress to a term-limited butter-carving champion (Modern Family’s Ty Burrell). If he’s the Bill Clinton of this tale, then his long-suffering wife (Jennifer Garner) is the Hillary Clinton, poised to continue her husband’s butter-carving legacy, only to find her path thwarted by a young African American upstart (Yara Shahidi).

Wilde fills a role that Kate Hudson had originally been courted for, before the actress settled on the Ginnifer Goodwin romcom Something Borrowed instead. Production Weekly erroneously reported this week that Alicia Silverstone was cast as the stripper; instead, she’ll be playing Shahidi’s adoptive mother.

It’ll be a busy summer for the 26-year-old Wilde, who will also be filming Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens during her summer hiatus from House and recently shot down rumors that she’d been added to the cast of the next Bond film. Wilde will next be seen on the big screen this winter in Paul Haggis’s thriller The Next Three Days and the highly anticipated Tron Legacy.

From Movieline