‘Tron 2′ Gets Its Lead

The sequel to the classic 1980s film Tron, now going by the same name (but we’ll keep referring to it as Tron 2), is a highly anticipated one and the news being released of both original stars Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner coming back as well as the fact they’re “staying true to the original” makes me very excited about it.

Well it seems that the project is zooming along at light-cycle speed as Disney has announced they’ve found their leading man. He is Garrett Hedlund, who you may recognize from such films as Four Brothers (he was the youngest one), Friday Night Lights, Georgia Rule, Death Sentence (he was bad-ass in that) and Eragon.

He reportedly beat out Ryan Gosling, upcoming Star Trek star Chris Pine and Michael Stahl-David (Cloverfield) for the role.

Not much is being released by Disney about the film’s plot details, and even the name of Hedlund’s character’s name is being kept under wraps. Disney has, however, revealed:

…that Hedlund plays a man who is sucked into the computer program and finds himself “retracing the steps of a character from the original movie named Kevin Flynn”, who was played by Jeff Bridges.

In my opinion Hedlund is a great choice for a leading role in something like this for one strong reason: He strikes the perfect balance between known enough and not so well known that you’ll be distracted by his celebrity when watching the film. He seems to be a pretty solid actor and a diverse one at that; just look at the difference between his kind of meek character in Four Brothers and his confident, dominant one in Death Sentence. However we’ll have to wait until more details about his character in this gets revealed before we can truly say if he’s right for the role or not.

In other Tron 2 news, recently cast star Olivia Wilde has given us a few tidbits of information (for the full interview go here):

- Bruce Boxleitner WILL be in the movie, alongside his Tron co-star Jeff Bridges, both of whom will presumably be reprising their roles from the first movie.

- Director Joseph Kosinski is actually building some massive sets for the movie, representing the virtual world, rather than shooting against green screens. The movie begins shooting in April in Vancouver.

- The movie will make use of face-replacement computer technology last seen in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Although we already knew that Bridges and Boxleitner were indeed coming back for this one, it’s great to hear it come from someone directly involved, one of the co-stars who would know for sure. And the fact that they’re using the same face replacement technology that was used in Benjamin Button is very exciting. This, plus the fact that Tron 2 will be in 3D, just reaffirms the fact that this would benefit greatly from updated technology in this modern movie day and age.

But the most exciting bit of info (in my opinion anyway) given by Wilde is the fact that the director is neglecting to use the presumed green screens and is instead building giant sets to recreate the computer world. Although they’ll have to obviously use CGI effects technology at some point, it’s kind of cool to find out they’re going for a more physical approach. It feels like a kind of nostalgic throwback to the ’80s when the original was made.

Damn, I find myself really looking forward to this…

What do you make of these new bits of info revealed by Wilde and what about the news that Hedlund will play the lead?

Tron 2 is to start shooting in April this year and set to be released in 2011.

Sources: /Film and SciFiWire