Disney may have just shut down Flynn’s Arcade for the last time. The studio has killed plans to make a third Tron movie, just weeks after it sounded like it was on the brink of starting.
Sources for The Hollywood Reporter said Friday that Tron 3 was never officially greenlit, but it sure seemed like it was. In March, a Vancouver blog reported that shooting was supposed to start this fall and Olivia Wilde officially jumped back on a couple of weeks later. Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski and star Garrett Hedlund were also set to return.
While it looks like it came close to fruition, THR reports that it will not be made in light of the disastrous launch of Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland last weekend. That film cost $180 million to make, but only made $41.7 million over the four-day Memorial Day weekend.
Tomorrowland’s lack of success might be the immediate reason to pull the plug (even though the Tron franchise has nothing in common with Tomorrowland), Variety suggests that Disney might have just not been able to find a slot on its schedule.
Disney has overloaded its schedule with live-action versions of animated classics and sequels to Pirates of the Caribbean and Alice in Wonderland. Plus, the studio also juggles its own animated projects and films by Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm. It looks like Tron 3 was just the odd duck pushed out of the way.
Another source close to the project told Variety that it “could resurface at some point,” but, sadly, that “some point” won’t be any time soon.
Tron began in 1982 with Steven Lisberger’s revolutionary original film, which was one of the first live-action movies with significant use of computer graphics. In 2010, Tron: Legacy grossed $400 million worldwide, but it cost a whopping $170 million to make. Jeff Bridges starred in both films.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com