experience TRON's GRID in IMAX 3D

Presented in Disney Digital 3D™, and IMAX® 3D, Walt Disney Pictures' new sci-fi adventure “TRON: Legacy” features cutting-edge, state-of-the-art technology, effects and set design that bring to life an epic adventure coursing across a digital grid that is as fascinating and wondrous as it is beyond imagination.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski, “TRON: Legacy” stars Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner and Michael Sheen. The film is scored by Grammy® Award–winning electronic music duo Daft Punk.

At the epicenter of the adventure is a father-son story that resonates as much on the Grid as it does in the real world: Sam Flynn (Hedlund), a rebellious 27-year-old, is haunted by the mysterious disappearance of his father, Kevin Flynn (Bridges), a man once known as the world’s leading tech visionary. When Sam investigates a strange signal sent from the old Flynn’s Arcade—a signal that could only come from his father—he finds himself pulled into a digital grid where Kevin has been trapped for 20 years.

The 3D experience of “TRON: Legacy” will bring viewers into the Grid, and along for the ride, more than any other film in cinematic history. Using the next generation of 3D technology developed after “Avatar,” “TRON: Legacy” will allow the audience to experience the digital grid and be part of the action in the highly stylized landscape.

Shooting in 3D achieves an immersive experience for the audience that mimics the immersive experience Sam has inside the computer; the audience does not simply witness Sam’s journey inside the Grid, they travel alongside him. The effect is enhanced by opening in 2D for the real-world scenes then switching to 3D when Sam enters the digital grid.

As Kosinski explains, “Ours is sort of a ‘Wizard of Oz’ approach. Ninety-eight percent of the 3D is in the digital TRON grid. The 3D really starts once we get into the Grid.”

“TRON: Legacy” will also be presented in IMAX theaters, so the filmmakers are making preparations to enhance the audience’s enjoyment by providing a unique experience. Specifically, they are finishing several sections of the film in a tall format—not letterbox—and in an IMAX theater, that means black bars at the top and bottom of the frame will disappear and it will become a full-screen sequence.

Kosinski elaborates: “In IMAX theaters there are several sequences, amounting to about 35 minutes in the film, that will open up to an expanded aspect ratio. We’ll be switching from 2.35 to 1.78, which will provide more image at the top and bottom of the screen. This will create an even more immersive 3D experience.”

The “TRON: Legacy” audiences will discover an exciting, evolved grid that pulsates with the latest technology, stunning visual effects and leading-edge design. With an insightful father-son story that’s grounded in cultural reality, a strong, relatable female lead and a unique, one-of-a kind style, “TRON: Legacy” blends what’s real with super-imaginative, eye-popping visuals and 3D action.

Opening across the country on Friday, Dec. 17, “TRON: Legacy” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Philippines.

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newcomer OLIVIA WILDE joins cast for TRON: LEGACY

Actress-on-the-rise Olivia Wilde plays Quorra, a unique computer program that acts as confidant and sometimes warrior to exiled video-game developer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), helping him survive his life in The Grid, in Walt Disney Pictures' “TRON: Legacy.” The film is a high-tech 3D action-adventure set in a digital world that’s unlike anything ever captured on the big screen.

The unique program Quorra is like a surrogate daughter to Kevin —a confidant with intelligence, inquisitiveness and the fighting ability to blow just about anyone away. He teaches her of the outside world and in return, she offers him undying loyalty. As a result of her education, however, Quorra adopts Kevin’s yearning for knowledge and now longs to experience the ‘user’ world that lies far beyond the realm of possibility.

Wilde articulates her thoughts on “TRON: Legacy” in the following interview:

Q: What is the human theme of this story?

Olivia Wilde: At the center of “TRON: Legacy” is a family story -- about a son searching for his father and becoming a man. Many of the great tales are about coming into your own, coming into adulthood, and this is no different than that, it’s just in an alternate universe. But what makes the story work is that despite all the incredible effects, at its core, it’s a solid human family story. That's why people will relate to it.

Q: Talk about the incredible world of “TRON: Legacy.”

Wilde: Nothing about the film is organic. It’s the real world translated into a digital universe, very high contrast, very slick blacks and bright colors and lights, and it’s just very futuristic. And very beautiful, clean and crisp. I really enjoyed embodying that style. It was great for me, because I got to completely transform.

Q: What was it like donning the light suit?

Wilde: The suit was amazing to put on, because nothing like it had ever been worn before. It was really revolutionary what the costume and art department was able to do. It had electro-luminescent lamps running through neoprene rubber. We were like little Energizer bunnies with battery packs on our backs. It was an amazing feeling when they would turn us all on at the same time. It was a great way to bring us into the moment of the film. You really felt you were in character once your lights were on.

Q: If you knew nothing about “TRON: Legacy,” what would hook you as a female moviegoer?

Wilde: For me personally, what would hook me would probably be the effects, the look of it—at first glance, just how unique it looks. It’s incredibly beautiful. Joseph Kosinski, the director, is a designer and an architect. He comes at this film with a unique perspective that really creates something new. So I’d say first there’s that, and then the family story, which everyone can relate to. A man or a woman, everyone relates to coming into your own as an adult and discovering a relationship with a parent. And I think also that women are just as into light bikes and other incredible props and cool vehicles that we have in this film as men are. I’d say girls would be into that as well. We also have amazing actors in the movie; I think that's going to be a big pull for a lot of people.

Q: Can you talk about working with Garrett Hedlund who plays Sam?

Wilde: Working with Garrett was great; we've been waiting to work together for a long time. We've known each other since we were 18. When I heard he was going to play Sam, it was really exciting, because he has enthusiasm for this film. It was familiar because I shared that enthusiasm; we were both childlike in our excitement for it and willing to dive in headfirst. We both gave everything we had to this film, physically and emotionally.

Q: What does Daft Punk bring to the mix?

Wilde: Daft Punk is going to attract a lot of fans that we wouldn't have otherwise. I think a lot of people are going to plug into the film because they're into this cyber punk feel that Daft Punk has. They are just so cool. I know a lot of people jumped onboard when they heard Daft Punk was involved. They're also not just involved on a level of, “We asked them to give us some songs for the movie.” They were involved from day one; they were meeting with the director and the producers far before the cast joined, and even before the script was finished. And so their esthetic and their creative energy are woven into the film. It’s got this raw, exciting and sexy Daft Funk feel to the entire film. I think they're ahead of their time, in terms of plugging into a futuristic, cool feeling that people like. I think the film does that as well.

Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Philippines, “TRON: Legacy” will open across the country on Dec. 17 in IMAX 3D, Digital 3D and regular formats.

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JEFF BRIDGES talks about TRON: LEGACY

Fresh from winning his first Best Actor Oscar for “Crazy Heart,” Jeff Bridges now returns to the screen in the dual roles of Kevin Flynn and Clu in Walt Disney Pictures' high-tech 3D adventure “TRON: Legacy.”

In the film, brilliant videogame designer Kevin Flynn always wanted the best of both worlds—digital and real. After he became the first human being to enter the astonishing digital world of the Grid, he decided that the best way to achieve that was to combine the two. So, he created the sophisticated CLU 2.0 program and used it in secret to help him design a Utopian existence that combined the highest ideals of the human and digital worlds. The daytime corporate wunderkind became the nighttime builder of the Grid. Then, one day in 1989, Kevin Flynn mysteriously disappeared.

Now, he has discovered first-hand how true the warning ‘be careful what you wish for’ is—trapped in the world of his own creation, all he can do is wait and hope that something will change and he will once again have a chance to return to his home and son.

Q: What's it like to approach a character 27 years later?

Jeff Bridges: I never thought of it in those terms, really. I never thought of it as playing the same guy. He hasn’t changed all that much. Well, maybe some of his enthusiasm for technology has been dampened a little bit. After all, he’s trapped inside a computer, so perhaps some of that fondness he had for his technology…maybe reflecting on it, he might think, “Perhaps there are some other things in life that I should have been paying attention to.”

Q: With all of that technology, what's the human story of “TRON: Legacy”?

Bridges: Well, one of the elements of the story is just what we were talking about, technology. It’s so exciting to come to realize all the things that you can do. And what's happening with technology is that it is developing so fast that we haven’t really developed any ethics to go along with it, or knowledge of what some of the ramifications of this technology will be.

Q: What about this project that attracts such attention from the sci-fi world?

Bridges: The fans have been so wonderful, they've really given birth to the film “TRON: Legacy.” Two years ago we showed a small portion of what this film might be, a test reel, and it got such a great reaction from the fans that Disney got behind the project. One of the things that I know attracted me to the first “TRON” and this one as well is that it’s really creating a myth for modern times. Myths can help us to navigate some of our challenges in our life. And as we were talking before, technology is a tremendous challenge, because we're so attracted to things that give us instant gratification.

Q: What's the biggest difference in filming the original “TRON” and now “TRON: Legacy”?

Bridges: Well, 27 years ago, the original was a very cutting-edge movie. Of course looking back, it looks like an old black-and-white TV show. But at the time we were making the original “TRON,” there was no Internet. Our cell phones were these things we carried around in big suitcases. We shot that movie in 70 millimeter black-and-white, and then it was sent to Korea, where a bunch of technicians hand-tinted all the frames to make the suits glow. Now in “TRON: Legacy,” again it’s cutting-edge technology. We're the next-generation of 3D cinematography after “Avatar.” It takes the technology that Jim Cameron came up with to the next level. Now, our suits actually do glow, and they throw light on the other actors, so they’re practical. I think one of the really great things that director Joseph Kosinski, being an architect, brought with him was the ability to marry actual sets with CGI sets. It’s very hard for the audience to tell where one ends and one begins.

Q: Through film technology, you act opposite your younger self. How did that work? As an actor, is that liberating?

Bridges: I love going to movies myself, and whenever I see a big epic film where the character has aged from being a young boy to an old man, traditionally there are different actors playing him in those stages. That’s always a little bump for me as I’m sitting there, when they change from one actor to the next. But now as an actor myself, it’s very gratifying to know that I can play myself or the character that I'm playing at any age, from an infant to an old man. That’s really exciting, especially to be part of this groundbreaking technology.

Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Philippines, “TRON: Legacy” will open across the country on Dec. 17 in IMAX 3D, Digital 3D and regular formats.

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GARRETT HEDLUND interview for TRON: LEGACY

Young actor Garrett Hedlund stars as Sam Flynn in Walt Disney Pictures' new high-tech 3D adventure “TRON: Legacy.” In the film, Sam – a rebellious 27-year-old – is haunted by the mysterious disappearance of his father Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a man once known as the world’s leading video-game developer.

When Sam investigates a strange signal sent from the old Flynn’s Arcade—a signal that could only come from his father—he finds himself pulled into a digital world where Kevin has been trapped for 20 years. Father and son embark on a life-or-death journey across a visually-stunning cyber universe—a universe created by Kevin himself that has become far more advanced with never-before-imagined vehicles, weapons, landscapes and a ruthless villain who will stop at nothing to prevent their escape.

At 18, Hedlund made an auspicious motion-picture debut in the pivotal role of Patrocius, the young cousin of Achilles (Brad Pitt) in Wolfgang Petersen’s “Troy.” He talks about “TRON: Legacy” in the following interview:

Q: What is the human story at the center of “TRON: Legacy”?

Garrett Hedlund: At the core of it, it’s a father and son story. My character, Sam, has been without his father for 20 years, and he finally gets to find out where he’s been. Although Alan Bradley, his father’s partner, has been there for Sam, he’s always wanted to know what became of Kevin Flynn. And in “TRON: Legacy,” he finally gets to do that.

Q: How has the overall world changed inside “TRON”?

Hedlund: The world of the original “TRON” was fascinating, but what they've added to the world in “TRON: Legacy” is a grander sense of geography. There are lightning storms and the weather, and there are also the cliffs and the mountains. Add to that the off-grid terrain where a lot of these vehicles can’t perform, and it’s an incredible sight to fathom.

Q: Talk about the light cycle.

Hedlund: The new bike is incredibly flashy and cool, and it’s much more dangerous. It’s faster and it doesn’t have to move in 90 degree angles. It has a lot more tricks.

Q: What did you do to prepare for the role of Sam?

Hedlund: The benefit I had on this film was going through an intense amount of training, not just for the physical benefits, but overall, for the character. I had training in Capoeira and parkour, and motorcycle training. But basically, when I step into playing that character, all of those skills have to be ‘new,’ from day one. The first moment Sam gets into this world, he doesn’t suddenly know how to do all of this stuff. There have to be the slight mistakes that he overcomes, and learning from that. Like the disk game sequence—there is something very unfamiliar with everything that he has to do, from the rules to the skills. He’s got to observe and the wheels have to be constantly turning in order for him to excel. When he sees another program ‘de-res,’ he thinks, ‘Well, I can’t let that happen.’ He has to find it within himself to become that hero. He has to have the strength and the defensive skills to keep proceeding from one level to the next.

Q: What was the hardest part of shooting?

Hedlund: You know, everybody always likes to talk about how difficult it is working with blue or green screen, dealing with just the imagination. But this film actually, to our benefit, there were a lot of grand sets, so we didn’t have to pretend so much. We had a lot of the physical things, such as the disks and the swords. When it was blue and green screen, we had great direction from Joseph Kosinski, the wonderful director, because he knew exactly what he wanted to do with what we were just approaching. When we were reading it from the text, we may have had a foggy notion, imagining what it could be, but he was always ten steps ahead of us. It was a game of trust, and we were never let down.

Q: What is your memory of the original TRON?

Hedlund: My memory of the original starts off with a very energetic and youthful Jeff Bridges, smiling and laughing. He had this crazy youthful side to him, in comparison to how we see him now, as the wise, older and incredible actor that he is. In the very first “TRON,” he’s a mad wiz with all this new technology that deals with the creation of video games. He’s also been perfecting a shiva laser, which ultimately ends up sucking him into the computer in the same fashion that Sam is in the beginning of “TRON: Legacy.”

Q: What about the original film inspires such a following?

Hedlund: I think from the original it was Jeff’s character Kevin Flynn getting pulled into the game grid and going on all of these adventures—it was incredible to imagine. Having to fight his way from one level to the next to complete the objective and find his way back out…it really was unlike anything else.

(Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Philippines, “TRON: Legacy” will open across the country on Dec. 17 in IMAX 3D, Digital 3D and regular formats.)

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what you don't know about TRON: LEGACY

In line with the upcoming release of “TRON: Legacy” – a 3D high-tech action-adventure set in a digital world that’s unlike anything ever captured on the big screen – Disney dishes out the interesting fun facts behind the making of this eagerly anticipated film.

In “TRON: Legacy,” Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), looks into his father’s disappearance and finds himself pulled into the digital world of Tron where his father has been living for 25 years. Along with Kevin’s loyal confidant Qora (Olivia Wilde), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey of escape across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous.

• The 3D technology in “TRON: Legacy” was developed post-“Avatar” and represents the most advanced in the world today.
• It's the first 3D movie to integrate a fully digital head and body upon an existing actor to create a younger version of Jeff Bridges’ character, Kevin Flynn, using advanced Emotion Capture technology developed by Digital Domain.
• Jeff Bridges is the first actor in cinematic history to play opposite a younger version of himself.
• Grammy®-award winning, French electronic duo Daft Punk scored “TRON: Legacy,” composing 24 tracks in all. They are also seen in a brief cameo.
• The light suits were created using electroluminescent lamps made from a flexible polymer film.
• Lightcycle design was inspired by the original sketches of Syd Mead, who designed them for “TRON” back in 1982. Creating Lightcycles that would form visual units with their riders and still give them room to move was a challenge for “TRON: Legacy” vehicle designer Daniel Simon and the rest of the vehicle design team.
• Both Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde received training in Parkour and martial arts for their roles.
• Because donning the light suits was a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, special inversion boards were provided to allow actors to get off of their feet and recline without endangering the costume.
• The light discs created for the film consist of 134 LED lights, are radio-controlled, and attached to the suits with magnets. In addition, they house the batteries that power the suit lights. They are heavy, so care had to be taken when throwing them on set.
• Several of the vehicles were practically fully built for certain scenes, as opposed to computer-generated, in keeping with director Joseph Kosinski’s vision of blurring the line between CGI and reality.
• Flynn’s Arcade holds a treasure trove of icons for “TRON” fans: the Master Control Program desk caddy from the original film; the tabletop computer interface and a condensed version of the Shiva laser, which takes Sam into the Grid; a map of the Grid embedded in the code of the background image; and Sam’s drawings from childhood on the wall.

Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Philippines, “TRON: Legacy” will open soon across the country in IMAX 3D, Digital 3D and regular formats.

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