‘Tron’ Creator Says He’s Taking on Obi-Wan-Like Role Behind the Scenes of Third Film

While Disney increases production of the long gestation Tron 3that is to say Tron: Ares – adding Damer star Evan Peters at the threequel — the godfather of Tron the universe has given the enterprise its blessing.

Stop The Hollywood Reporter‘S It happened in Hollywood podcast, Steven Lisberger — writer/director of 1982 Groundbreaking Tron – says he has taken on the role of Master Jedi in advising the next generation of Tron filmmakers, borrowing from another sci-fi franchise.

“THE Tron team is hard at work,” says Lisberger, 72. “I’m always hard at work. It will happen. My goal with these things in playing Obi-Wan is to say the one line that has impact. I try to say something that is helpful to them without getting into the weeds.

Lisberger recalls seeking the advice of animation elders when embarking on the making of the technically dizzying original film.

“We shot a movie with storyboards on Tron 1. One of Disney’s Nine Old Men he was still in the studio,” he recalls. “I was so excited to show him because God knows I could have used a mentor at that point. I showed him our storyboard film. He sat there, looked at everything, and then he turned to me and said, ‘Boy, you’re on your own.’ And he got up and walked out of the room.

“So I’m trying to limit my input to sentences, but I hope sentences are helpful for them,” she adds.

Though it currently enjoys cult status and admiration among science fiction aficionados, futurists and gamers alike, the original Tron debuted to a quiet reception, grossing $4 million in its opening weekend and grossing $33 million domestically on a $20 million budget.

“Some people in the studio got too excited and compared it to Star Wars”, says Lisberger. “Star Wars it was dripping with nostalgia. Tron it was completely state of the art. He came out at the wrong time.

“It went against ET It was kind of how the world was going ET and he was very touchy and we became that computer movie that didn’t appreciate the human condition. That was a problem. As time goes on, the significance of the film continues to grow. Every now and then something gets accomplished, it’s too ahead of its time and then it takes years for it to be accepted or find its legs. This is what happened with Tron,” He explains.

While the concepts explored by the film – everything from cybersecurity to artificial intelligence is explored – are now commonplace, that was not the case at the time of the film’s release.

“People don’t remember how much backlash there was for computers in the early ’80s,” Lisberger says. “We were even ahead of Steve Jobs at this point. People didn’t know what the internet was. The networking that is in the history of Tron and is hinted at in the last scene, which was based on the ARPANET”, he adds, referring to the US military-based forerunner of the Internet.

Joachim Ronning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) is set to begin directing Tron: Ares in Vancouver in August.

For more information on making Tronlisten to the full episode of It happened in Hollywood below and make sure you do follow the podcast for deeper dives into Hollywood history.