It feels like about 10 years since Tron: Legacy came to theaters, as pop culture moved on pretty quickly from a brief flirtation with light cycles, director Joseph Kosinski dove into the new project Oblivion, and star Garrett Hedlund worked hard to prove he was more than just the blank pretty boy who seemed lost at the center of the Game Grid. I would have bet you about $50 six months ago that a Tron sequel would never happen, despite talk of scripts and cast members set to return .
And yet, just a week ago word came down that a new writer has been hired to write not even the second movie, but the third-- and that the project was being fast-tracked by new Disney chief Alan Horn. Now Hedlund has confirmed to Next Movie that, true to the three-picture contract nearly every actor signs when joining a major franchise film, he's on board for the third one as well-- and that he and Disney and everybody who stands to make money off this thing is very excited:
Yeah. Disney's very excited. That's about that. You know, yeah, I'm very excited, Disney's very excited.
You don't have to read too much between the lines to sense that Hedlund would really rather talk about anything else-- he's doing press for On the Road after all, a film in which he's really good, and he may have the same doubts I do that any more Tron movies will actually be made. But the first one wound up being a pretty big hit when you factor in international grosses, making almost exactly $400 million in the end, and Hedlund could do worse than report back to duty for a big money-making effort. Who knows: maybe they'll learn from the mistakes of the first one and make a better movie this time?
