As the man behind the camera in current megahit Top Gun: Maverick, director Joseph Kosinski knows a thing or two about what it takes to make a beloved movie franchise work. However, his experience wasn’t enough to convince Disney to greenlight a third Tron movie, especially in the light of the guaranteed success provided by Marvel and Star Wars.
Released in 2010, Tron: Legacy was Kosinski's breakout film and also his first, as its unique visual style helped it become a modern cult classic much in the same way the original did since its 1982 premiere. Regardless of that, movies that barely turn a profit are rarely the highest priority for studios, something that Kosinski believes played a huge role in his second Tron film never materializing after the company had already consolidated its grasp over cinema's biggest money-making machines.
This story comes out of an in-depth interview by Vulture, where Kosinski goes over most of his work and claims he almost got booked for his Tron: Ascension. “I really tried. I got close in 2015, and Disney pulled the plug on it. I hadn’t built anything, but I had the whole movie storyboarded and written,” he said, noting that the conditions were much different than for Legacy. The director points out that when his Tron movie was made, Disney owned neither Marvel nor Star Wars, and he believes it was those two properties that caused the company to funnel their investments towards those blockbusters, although he understands that was the right decision from a business standpoint.
Kosinski also spoke in disbelief at getting Disney's approval to make a Tron: Legacy in the first place. The sequel was a $150 million film shot by a novice director with a first-time production designer, inexperienced actors, and music made by a couple of French guys dressed as robots - the very Daft Punk duo he had listened to since college. The director also took time to compliment Miles Teller, with who he’s worked on two of his films before Top Gun: Maverick, Only the Brave and Spiderhead.
Naturally, Kosinski also had plenty of Top Gun: Maverick moments he loved to talk about, including getting to use Tom Cruise's signature running style for his own benefit, though the two are hardly strangers after working together on 2013’s Oblivion, one of Cruise's best sci-fi films. On the bright side of things, Kosinski's stock is likely to rise after receiving so much praise over his handling of the Top Gun sequel, so maybe he might just get the chance to make another Tron movie further down the line.
In spite of that, Kosinski's assessment of the movie industry in 2015 still holds up today, as the number of blockbuster films not featuring superheroes or Star Wars continues to decline and the budget bracket formerly occupied by the likes of Top Gun in 1986 also shrinks.
Tron: Legacy is now available on Disney Plus.
Source: Vulture