The new "Tron Legacy" trailer that arrived with Disney's San Diego Comic-Con panel Thursday (July 22) showcased the company's forward-thinking approach to applying new visual effects to vintage properties.
Despite the fact that actor and comedian Patton Oswalt took the microphone to moderate, the film's cast and surprise "Haunted Mansion" director Guillermo del Toro emphasized new technologies and serious approaches to their projects.
"It was pretty wild, pretty psychedelic," "Tron" star Jeff Bridges told the San Diego Convention Center audience. "You can play yourself at any age, whether it's an old man or an infant. To be in this groundbreaking movie where the idea for that has really been born is really an exciting thing."
Bridges referred to the fact that he plays two roles in "Tron Legacy" — that of his original character Kevin Flynn and Clu 2.0, who is meant to look like Bridges from the original "Tron" in 1982.
"I was attracted to this one for the same reason I was to the first one," he said. "It appealed to the kid in me."
Bridges, along with Olivia Wilde, Garrett Hedlund, Michael Sheen and Bruce Boxleitner, sat on while Disney unveiled eight minutes of "Legacy" in 3-D, which director Joseph Kosinski and "Tron" creator Steven Lisberger were also onboard to present.
"There's a lot of intensive training that went into this," said Hedlund, who plays Bridges' son in the movie. "I think I started the first week of January, and we didn't start filming until April 6."
The panel went on to involve audience members in a recording session that technicians from Skywalker Sound plan to use for the film's final cut. The actors watched as the crowd shouted "Disk Wars," "Rinzler" and "Derez" aloud and stomped their feet for effect.
Further surprises came toward the end of the "Legacy" discussion when two other Disney properties appeared in the spotlight. A release date for "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" was confirmed for May 20, 2011, and Oswalt announced del Toro as the director of a new "Haunted Mansion" movie to be filmed in live-action 3-D.
"To me, the Haunted Mansion is the most precious real estate on earth," del Toro said, revealing that he's been to the Disney attraction every year since he was 3 years old. "This is a place where I go to when I need to think or I need to relax.
"We're making the Haunted Mansion the most haunted place on earth," the director stated, declaring that his film would part ways from the comedy in Rob Minkoff and Eddie Murphy's 2003 film of the same name. "We are not making it a comedy. We are making it scary and fun at the same time, but the scary will be scary."
In that respect, del Toro will be taking the Haunted Mansion name into the style of filmmaking that has defined his career — with quirky effects and chilling themes throughout movies like "Pan's Labyrinth," "Mimic" and "Hellboy II: The Golden Army."
He'll also be taking on something with a great deal of personal meaning. "This, to me, is a dream come true, and I hope to steal as many props as possible," he said.
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