Comic-Con 2010: Tron Legacy Panel Recap, Plus New Trailer

11:23: Patton Oswalt is our moderator. He lists about a billion different ways to interact with the Tron brand: Facebook, friendster, twitter, etc. It must be killing him.  
 
11:25: Short Tron clip fest, showing a bunch of clips from The Simpsons, South Park, etc. Followed quickly by introductions. The bearded creator of Tron is "the smartest Hobbit in the Shire", according to Oswalt. Wait, Michael Sheen is in this? That's pretty rad. Big cheers for Bruce Boxleitner, and of course for Jeff Bridges. You can call me Bruce Box-Liker.  

11:30 Full 3D filming, no conversion. Illuminated suits. This director's a good-looking guy. It's revealed that Bridges is playing two roles: both the programmer from the original film, and his avatar from the first film, who hasn't aged since the first film. Hope they didn't pull any X-Men-style digital youthening crap; that looks terrible. 
 
11:33: Talk about casting, said they had to have Kevin Flynn and Tron come back. They were very lucky to get Jeff Bridges and Boxleitner. Amazing that they managed to talk Boxleitner into doing this film, considering his busy schedule. 
 
11:34: Bridges talking about acting against his 35-year-old self: "It was pretty willld!". Just needs a good long "Maaaaaan!" on the end of that, and it would've been The Dude on stage. This guy is effortlessly cool. 
 
11:36: Wow, Garrett Hedlund does not come off as a very intelligent person. Olivia Wilde is pretty, in case you didn't know. "It's really amazing to play a tough, kick-ass woman!" I long for the da y when actresses don't have to say stuff like that.      

11:38: Lots of talk about Hedlund's training and the constrictions offered by the suits, which were apparently pretty constrictive. Michael Sheen says that this is a 4D film because Bridges brings another dimension of awesomeness. Fishing for applause; it's not quite coming. 

 11:41 Bruce Boxleitner looks like the hoarse guy from Generation Kill now with his grey hair. References Babylon 5 without naming it out loud for some reason.      
 
11:44 Lots of chatter about special-effects technology of 1983. Lisberger, the creator of Tron, says that good things take a long time to happen, so he's happy that the sequel is coming along well. "No matter how good the technology is, creative people will find a way to exploit it 105%".   They're about to show a full eight minutes of the movie.  

11:46: Oswalt has a funny bit about recording the footage; we've been reminded all day not to. The footage is pretty rad, but man, Hedlund is not a good actor. The 3D effects are fairly muted. Hedlund is apparently mistaken for a stray program by the guards of Tron and taken away on one of the large ships that you might've seen in the trailer. Guard scans every one of the prisoners and says either rectify or Games. Hedlund's picked for Games; the other dude who's so designated kills himself instead of going with the guards. So...games is not where you want to go, apparently.  
 
So, a bunch of sexy girls come out to strip Hedlund and get him a better suit. They cut off his clothes with finger lasers and start outfitting him. This is a really weird fetish scene; people are going to be masturbating to this for a long time to come. Hedlund's receiving his identity disc. If he loses the disc, immediate de-resolution. The women move oddly; I think some of this was filmed backwards for the effect. "What am I supposed to do?" "Survive."  
 
Jesus, Michael sheen looks just like David Bowie in this movie. Very cool action montage; people getting deresolutioned, lightbikes, gliders. Short glimpse of Bridges as a young man; the effect is pretty creepy but it still looks better than the X-men movie. It looks like his face is gliding around the screen apart from his body. A little stinger of Hedlund jumping off a cliff with a rod and turning into a Light-Jet or something. Impressive footage, for the most part. 
 
11:56: Skywalker sound is here, recording, and maybe we'll be in the movie if we play our cards right. Everyone's yelling "DISK WARS!" at the top of their lungs. "Rinz Ler!" "De-Res!" Now they want us to get up and stomp our feet. A little difficult with a laptop, unfortunately. Annnnnnnd...it's Tron Guy on the screen. Biiiiig applause.    
 
12:02: Audience questions. Why Daft Punk? "well, just look at those guys! They're apparently pretty big Tron fans. Met them over pancakes, fitting in with the disc theme." Been working on the music for almost three years. Completely new and different sound for them, which I doubt somehow. 

Explain the father and son relationship between Sam and Kevin. Bridges says he likes to know as little about a movie as possible before heading in, big applause. He says "It's a father and son relationship...", gets some laughes. 

When you first created Tron, did you expect it to be so popular? The generation that grew up has accepted it as a founding myth of the Internet. Has a validity that went beyond suburbia's ability to accept it at the time. Lots of truths in the movie that wound up becoming fulfilled with technology. Bridges is talking about the original film as a modern myth, goes off onto a rant about water bottles and how evil they are. Dude is amazing.    
 
 12:10: Tron set was lined with videogames that everyone could play for free. Bridges and Steve have an ongoing fight in Battlezone. Bridges says that playing Battlezone was preparation for filming. Bridges says that the idea of doing the reboot appealed to kid in him, get to wear great costumes and all the new technology. He's big on selling this movie as a modern myth. 

God, nerds. Couple of guys just asked Olivia Wilde if being in Tron made her appreciate guys who play video games more. Ughhhhh. Skin crawling. She says the last video game she played was Duck Hunt, now she's fascinated by them. "You guys are discerning and smart!" aka "Please applaud for me!"     
 
 12:12 Bridges talks a while about acting, says his methods haven't really changed much over the last few decades. A question about the title: originally called Tron 2.0, TR2N, changed to Legacy because it's a father and son story, also a reference to how the original Tron pushed the envelope and they wanted to honor that. 

A question about re-releasing the original tron, maybe in 3D? "We'll see the original Tron in some exciting formats soon." Some kid asks "What's your opinion on the remake of Tron?" Bridges says, "Well, I have a good opinion of it!"   
 
12:17: New trailer, which we've gone ahead and embedded below!
        
Upon looking again, that CGI face on Bridges is pretty effing creepy. But you can go check it out for yourself! Aaaaaand...that's the end of the panel.   We'll be back in a while. Butttttt wait! There's more. Oh hai, it's a Pirates of the Caribbean teaser with Johnny Depp. No footage from the film, just a little fourth-wall-breaking stuff to get people pumped up. Oswalt says: "Wow, that looks almost as exciting as my two shows tomorrow at House of Blues, tickets still available!" 
 
12:24: Brief Haunted Mansion teaser, no footage. But hey, it's Guillermo Del Toro coming out and announcing that he's...directing? Producing? Who knows. Surprise appearance, so that's cool. But god, Guillermo, do you have to call this one of "Life's Holy Grails"? It's an amusement park ride, dude.  
 
12:27: So The Haunted Mansion movie will be live-action, in 3D. Not a comedy, no Eddie Murphy's corpse. Scary and fun, but "the scary will be scary!" Guillermo is talking a lot about mythology, what an honor, etc., etc. Major character will be the Hatted Ghost? Toro has a difficult-to-understand accent; just trying to keep up. He says it'll make your kids cry.