Disney don’t exactly make small movies. While most other studios tend to strike a balance between mega-budget blockbusters and more cost-effective fare, in recent years, the Mouse House have focused almost exclusively on huge projects designed to dominate the box office and little else.
With brands like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, Pixar, a steady stream of live-action remakes of their animated classics and now a whole host of big-name Fox properties under their umbrella, the all-conquering overlords of entertainment clearly don’t have much interest in funding prestige dramas or mid-budget genre films.
One Disney franchise that’s long been rumored for another reboot is Tron, despite both a sequel to 2010’s Legacy and a Disney Plus series both having fallen by the wayside. The last movie may have earned $400 million globally, but didn’t do the numbers Disney were expecting given the $170 million budget.
Legacy received mixed reviews and posted underwhelming financial returns, but most people are in agreement that the soundtrack by Daft Punk was the highlight of the entire thing. And in a recent interview, the company’s President of Music & Soundtracks Mitchell Leib admitted that Disney’s business model will continue to focus exclusively on blockbusters, and they’re keen to have Daft Punk become involved in the potential Tron 3.
“We’re in the big movie business, and unless it’s a big movie idea, we don’t make small movies. We’re only after basically billion dollar box office hits… Daft Punk has a bit of a television and movie development company, and all kinds of things they’re into, businesses they’re into. So I had lunch with Paul Hahn to further a bit of a starting conversation that we’re looking at making a sequel to Tron now, we’re looking at Tron 3. And we’ve got a great script, I mean a really phenomenal script that we’re very excited about. Whereas the timing wasn’t right to have done it years ago, I think we feel like the timing is right now, and I feel like we’ve learned a lot of lessons from that last movie.”
While the score isn’t the first thing that usually comes to mind when assembling such an expensive sci-fi movie, Leib is a music executive after all, and he went on to say that he’d look to secure Daft Punk’s involvement in Tron 3 before even looking for a director.
“The right and first thing to do is to try and bring Daft Punk, and would they want to. And the answer is they’re always open to anything and everything, but you gotta take it as it comes and see what the circumstances are. We don’t even know who would be directing it, I mean we’re hopeful Joe Kosinski would come back and do another one.”
Legacy director Joseph Kosinski has always been open to the idea of returning for another visit to the Grid, but given the relatively muted reception to the last movie and the massive investment that will be required to make another one, though Tron might fit into Disney’s business model, it still remains to be seen if there’s enough of an appetite from audiences to make it a worthwhile endeavor.