Joseph Kosinski is the man responsible for Disney’s latest film “TRON: Legacy”. Joseph had a chance to work on the follow-up 28 after the original film came out. Although this is Joseph’s first feature film, he is no stranger to the business have working in it for a while. Movie Mikes had a chance to chat with Joseph about working on “TRON: Legacy” and what is in store for his bright future.
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Mike Gencarelli: With “TRON: Legacy” being your debut feature, what was the thing that you were nervous about most?
Joseph Kosinski: I would say…probably just the stamina required to see a three year project all the way through. It is a different scale film than the work I have done before. That was certainly a challenge. I am still alive [laughs].
MG: What is the part of the film that you are most proud of?
JK: There is so much in there but for me one my favorite sequences in the film is the whole scene in the safe house. It is a more dramatic scene. Flynn kind of tells the story of how he can to be where he is. It was the most fun sequence for me to shoot. It was the closest thing to a real film, in terms of having a full set, three characters and very little digital work.
MG: The first film is known well for its digital effects at the time, did you feel any pressure to equal or surpass that achievement?
JK: The first film pushed the bar technically in so many different ways. We tried to be ambitious in the way we approached this one as well. We used the latest 3D cameras, fully illuminated suits and a fully digital character. Those are definitely some new cutting edge technology.
MG: There has been a lot of talk ‘de-aging’ Jeff Bridges character, what can you tell us?
JK: Well, I was really intrigued by was the idea. Luckily the technology afforded us to tell that type of story. This relationship between Flynn and Clu is one we haven’t seen in the movie before or at least not since the first “Tron”. Now we can continue that story with Jeff (Bridges) being 25 or so years older. To me that is a really excited opportunity and certainly one of the biggest challenges of our movie, if not the biggest. I feel like we pushed the bar higher in terms of digital characters.
MG: People are on kind of a 3D backlash recently, tell us about the 3D in “TRON: Legacy”?
JK: This is a true 3D film. We took the Fusion camera system developed by James Cameron and Vince Pace and we modified it for our film. We updated the camera body and shot the whole thing using master prime lenses. So it was shot and finished in 3D. There is no conversion at all in this film. We strode to make the highest quality 3D film that we could today. For people that enjoy 3D or want to completely immerse themselves in the 3D experience, I feel like we have provided the best quality version you can get right now.
MG: I hear the 3D has a sort of homage to “The Wizard of Oz”?
JK: Yeah! What I love about “The Wizard of Oz” is that it goes from black and white to color the moment Dorothy got pulled in. Our film goes to 3D or full 3D the moment when Sam gets pulled into the grid.
MG: Personally being a huge fan of the first “Tron”, how do you think fans are going to react to this movie?
JK: I think that fans of the first film are going to notice a lot a little things we tried to include. We have put things in there specifically for them. Lots of big concepts also, we are continuing the story of Kevin Flynn who obviously was the main character in the first film. I think there is stuff in there for fans of the original but at the same time it is a movie built for fans who haven’t seen first movie. I am hoping both groups are satisfied.
MG: What can you tell us about your next project? Will it be “The Black Hole”?
JK: Yeah, I am working on two projects for now at Disney. They are both currently in development. One in “The Black Hole”, which is being written by Travis Beacham. The other is “Oblivion”, which is a based on a story I wrote and being written by William Monahan.
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