Home Entertainment Lion’s Garth Davis to direct Tron 3, star Jared Leto accidentally reveals title

Lion’s Garth Davis to direct Tron 3, star Jared Leto accidentally reveals title

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Looks like we’re officially jacking back into the grid! Early last month we got a pair of reports that appeared to confirm that a long-gestating third Tron movie was in development with Jared Leto set to star. It only took 10 years since Tron: Legacy, Disney! Which is still waaaaay shorter than the 28-year gap between that sequel and the original 1982 sci-fi cult-classic though, which saw Jeff Bridges’ computer engineer Kevin Flynn accidentally sucked into a computer mainframe to find an entire digital society living there. Either way, a third movie appeared to be happening, and Deadline has now not only confirmed those reports but also brings word that the upcoming film will see Garth Davis in the director’s chair.

If that name seems unfamiliar to you, it’s because Davis doesn’t really have that many credits to his name. After a stint in TV directing, including helming half the first season of Elisabeth Moss’ fantastic Top of the Lake for which he earned an Emmy nomination, the Australian-born filmmaker transitioned to features with Lion. The 2016 biographical drama starring Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman was a critical smash, earning six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Davis only had one other credit since then though, which was the Rooney Mara-starring Mary Magdalene, but it was unfortunately a dud, getting nowhere near Lion’s success.

So now after a short career helming nothing but intense small-scale character dramas, Davis will be directing a big budget blockbuster sci-fi movie that will have more VFX than you can keep track of. Okay then. According to Deadline’s reports though, this wasn’t a studio picking a director from relative obscurity for a high-profile assignment though as Davis “aggressively pursued the job” himself and won over the Disney suits with his pitch. That level of passion for the franchise is actually pretty cool to hear. Especially since Disney has officially not actually given the green light for this production yet.

Jared Leto seems pretty convinced that it’s happening though. The Oscar-winning actor has been attached to a third Tron film since back in 2017, with the concept of that film changing many times. Would it be a follow-up to Tron: Legacy (where reportedly the computer world of the Grid invaded the real world), a spinoff, a soft reboot with new characters? We just don’t know. But now we may know what it’s called though.

On Leto’s Twitter, the actor posted the following two messages where he expressed his own passion for the franchise, right back to the 1982 original. That landmark film, with its groundbreaking visual effects, was an inspiration for many filmmakers, including Leto apparently.

Here’s the thing though. That wasn’t Leto’s original tweet. As picked up by Collider, originally Leto had tweeted out that “I will be starring in TRON: ARES” before deleting that tweet and replacing it with the one above. So what does Tron: Ares tell us? Well, absolutely nothing outside of me flexing my Greek mythology geek muscles and reminding you that that’s the name of the Greek god of war.

However, in one of the original reports from 2017 about Leto’s involvement with this new Tron film, THR had heard that “Ares” would be his character’s name. Since then, the script has reportedly undergone so many changes (the latest draft is apparently penned by Jesse Wigutow, who was also attached to the failed The Crow reboot) that who knows what it means now. We still also have no idea if Tron: Legacy’s Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde (they respectively played Flynn’s son Sam and Quorra, a computer program that eventually escapes with Sam to the real world) will be back, or even if Bridges may make it three-for-three and also put in an appearance.

But at least something is happening. And if it’s true that Disney is looking to bring back Daft Punk to create another masterpiece electronic score for it, then I’ll most definitely be jacking back into Tron again.

Last Updated: August 12, 2020

One Comment

  1. How’s Leto gonna prepare for this movie? Use a VR headset for a couple months with a special Tron version?

    Reply

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