[CrackMonkey] [macgyver_1985@hotmail.com: [Tron] Tron 2.0 Script Review?]

[Nick Moffitt]

----- Forwarded message from Jason  Parrish <macgyver_1985 at hotmail.com> -----

More Tron 2.0 news from Coming Attractions:


January 7, 2001... Kamehameha chimes in with a massive report on the 
project, as he claims to have taken a gander at the script. He 
includes his thoughts and a bit of a script review. We'll just let 
him get on with it. Cause it's huge.

"The only draft I've read so far was Lisberger's 1999 solo effort, 
revised up through late 2000. I know, I know, but I did not see 
Richard Jefferies' name listed anywhere on it. Perhaps this was due 
to a clause in Lisberger's contract, as if Richard's taking the 
paycheck but not the glory. I wouldn't be surprised, since the script 
READS much better than Lisberger's TRON script from 20 years ago. 
Either he's drastically improved as a writer or this is a ghost-job. 
But I almost wet my pants anyway because it seems SO cool no matter 
who wrote it...

"Lisberger/Jefferies (WHOEVER) apparently hopes to get the old cast 
leads (Jeff Bridges, Boxleitner, Cindy Morgan etc.) to return in 
their roles, as the modern middle-aged ENCOM executives who hold onto 
their ideals even in the mega-wealthy Microsoft NASDAQ global era. 
But the main heroes will be younger newer actors. This makes sense 
for the story's sense of realism, but also for the sake of modern 
megaplex marketing.

"From the very first page, I could tell that Disney/Dreamquest/Pixar 
(WHOEVER IS causing this movie to move forward) IS planning to make 
this movie a technologically groundbreaking spectacular, taking the 
naïve/simple notions of the 1982 original and extrapolating them to 
modern society, 2002 - 20 years later. This is a very modern script, 
as if the original story DID take place two decades ago, and that in-
between during the Bill Gates era, Flynn was right there still 
working his butt off. Until


"THE PLOT IMPETUS: A nefarious Orwellian-esque mega SEARCH ENGINE 
(this movie's revived replacement for the MCP) has been developed, 
which is more powerful than any other search engine, virus, or 
program yet invented. This all-consuming SEARCH ENGINE threatens to 
take over the world by sucking up every single speck of info/data in 
the electronic universe - there is no security measure capable of 
preventing this program engine from getting and taking whatever it 
wants. Corporations and governments cannot stand alone against it
 
Hackers, and certainly average private citizens, all stand powerless 
to defend their privacy and livelihood from being taken over by this 
unstoppable Big Brother cyberforce
which will FORCE everyone to 
submit to its tyrannical totalitarian superiority.

"Flynn can't bear to see the free world be destroyed in this fascist 
fashion, so he oversees a newer-younger team of teen/college rebel-
heroes, who must once again enter the digital realm and utilize their 
Playstation/Dreamcast/Nintendo-era hacking-cracking extreme-sports 
skills in order to battle the forces of the new would-be MCP. (I list 
all of those mutually-exclusive concepts together, because the action 
sequences of this script wisely attempt to harness all of those 
notions within the cyber-realm.)

"Considering the recent real-life controversies over single-pixel web-
bugs (which track Net surfers without any means of warning or 
detection) and NSA/CIA/FBI 'black-box' programs like Echelon (which 
eliminate any notion of privacy as they can decode all emails, 
all 'encrypted' phone calls, etc.) this threat of an MCP-style mega-
search engine giving omnipotent power to a fascist corporate entity 
does seem plausible enough to represent a cinematic Ultimate Evil in 
this age of corporate-conglomerate takeovers and PalmPilots and e-
commerce... sort of like another Big Brother or Matrix or Skynet....

"This project is smart for Disney to pursue now, since the world at 
the dawn of the 21st century is better prepared now for this movie-
concept than they were at the dawn of the Reagan era. Society is so 
much more high-tech now, and most of us feel like minions beholden to 
monolithic conglomerates and government entities like the WTO and UN. 
While 1982 had arcades and Ataris, since then kids have literally 
been raised on videogames - teens today cannot conceive of life prior 
to videogames, and as of yet no major big-budget Hollywood studio 
movie has tapped into this cinematic realm for Gen Y youth. (The 
Matrix was aimed at R-rated adult audiences.) As a bonus, the cast of 
the original TRON have come into their own since 1982
 Jeff Bridges 
spent the last decade winning kudos for his performances in Fisher 
King, Fearless, and Arlington Road, while Boxleitner pleased geeks 
with Babylon 5 (and continued warming older women with cable repeats 
of Scarecrow & Mrs. King!)

"In addition, TRON was released when 70mm Dolby 6-track magnetic was 
state-of-the-art for movie theater projection. MOST people were 
unaware of these technologies, and instead watched movies at the 
local mono cardboard shopping-center theater shack. Nowadays we've 
got digital projectors (DLP), Dolby EX digital surround, DVDs, DSS, 
etc. Audiences are much more oriented towards IMAX-quality spectacle 
than they were in 1982.

"I only hope this movie actually gets made and marketed correctly, 
because the brilliant-but-flawed first TRON is a dated masterpiece 
that was too ahead of its time and thus never got the fair chance to 
entertain audiences with its imaginative epic story. Back in 1982, 
most people didn't understand computers any more than they understood 
alien quantum physics. NOW most of us have come to depend on 
computers in our daily lives. So the audience will definitely be more 
interested now in the mythology that TRON has to offer, giving Disney 
the potential of a profitable summer smash among the youth crowd as 
well as fanboys. There will be a killer soundtrack album, videogames, 
toys, theme-park attractions -- all the merchandise a studio could 
want in a stylish action adventure fantasy... PLUS TRON's so much 
more family-friendly than The Matrix, giving Disney a classic safety 
net.

"TRON 2.0 reads very expensive (state-of-the-art CG) but also seems 
very worth the money, as it's full of non-stop spectacle of the 
gloriously fun eye-candy big-screen surround-sound variety... a 
cinematic orgasm if you will. It MUST be handled lushly and 
respectfully and carefully in order to deliver what the audience 
wants, i.e., NOT be treated like another idiotic crapfest like the 
90's virtual reality junkers Virtuosity & Lawnmower Man, or else the 
studio will just be wasting its own time and money as well as the 
audience's. Disney should take its time producing TRON 2.0, at least 
in order to make sure this movie gets done the right way, rather than 
rapidly shovelling it down the pipeline in order to meet a rushed-
panic gap in their 2002 release-date schedule. (Which is the habit 
that has ruined previous would-be Disney tentpole franchises like 
Rocketeer, Judge Dredd, and Inspector Gadget, all of which had 
tremendous potential but were RUINED by ghastly incompetence.)

"Obviously Disney would prefer to have the movie ready for Summer 
2002 for the 20th Anniversary of TRON.... but accomplishing this 
movie that quickly at any level of deserved craftsmanship quality, 
would be a miracle for ANY filmmaking team, much less Disney which is 
not exactly known for artistic integrity. 

"I'm also curious to know if the FX work of TRON 2.0 will be handled 
more by Disney's DreamQuest FX division or Pixar, since I've heard 
that many of the Pixar geniuses were first inspired to get into the 
CG business when they first saw Tron back in 1982.

"I should note that the script coverage I read complained about the 
characters' lack of emotional heart-and-soul, as if they were just 
pawns to the story. While I admit that we usually want better 
characters to identify with than the annoying stereotypes that the 
studios usually feed us
 the fact is that TRON was always more about 
the visceral experience of its own machinations, than it was about 
the interior thoughts of Dillinger, Flynn, Alan, Lori, etc. It's a 
live-action videogame, fer cryin' out loud. The motivations of the 
characters were simplistic yet effective for what was necessary. As 
long as the heroes of Tron 2.0 are likeable and worth rooting for, 
and the villains are diabolical, I think we'll be fine. While we want 
Tron characters to be interesting and intelligent, we don't want to 
focus too much on them AS characters, because in its very essence 
TRON has always been more of a sensory-experience than a biographical 
study. I personally don't think that's something to be ashamed of, 
since it's unabashed pure fun, and blatantly aimed at being a 
worldwide commercial success. If only Disney will allow this movie to 
be made with internal dignity befitting the original concept, I say 
let them have another profit-oriented blockbuster."

[Thanks to Kamehameha for the report.]




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