Tron Legacy hits theaters December 17th.

Via the Program-Glitch unlocked thanks to the viral Tron hounds over at Flynn Lives.

The event was part of a viral marketing scheme for the film, which comes out in December. Fans had to sign up and create a profile on the site flynnlives.com and then request tickets at 4pm Friday to get the latest on Tron: Legacy. So all of us had put some effort into this. A motley crowd of mostly die-hard Tron fans was conducted through a gauntlet of security and received "Flynn Lives" t-shirts and 3D glasses. We waited in the IMAX movie theater for about ten minutes while excited discussions ranged all things Tron.

A hundred or so people were in attendance, with a median age of 30 but outlying teenagers and seniors. At one point, a man announced, "Someone flew in from Toronto just for this!" and a ski-hatted Canadian raised his hand proudly. This prompted a shout-out of "Florida guy right here!" which was followed up by a rather weak "there's a guy here from the Alderaan system" that fell flat amongst the fans. "Did he make it in 12 parsecs or less?" someone finally obliged, but we were not here for Star Wars.

1982's virtual reality hacker/video game cult classic movie Tron, starring grand high cult pooh-bah Jeff Bridges, retains enough of an enthusiastic following that a sequel 22 years later motivates its fans to travel to a snowy New York City for footage. There hadn't been many clues about what we'd actually be shown.

At last, the lights darkened, the studio logo popped up in 3D, and this is what we saw:

Kevin Flynn's now grown-up son, Sam (Eragon's Garrett Hedlund) misses his heroic hacker dad. He's talking to Tron's old computer programming pal Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner), who tells Sam that his father was doing work of importance to "science - medicine - religion" and that he suspects Flynn could still somehow be around. This prompts Sam to approach the dusty, abandoned Flynn's Arcade, with its covered-up consoles, to find the Tron machine and the office behind the wall.

The quick cut-scenes complete with 3D effects that we were shown of Sam in the virtual world are very cool, if a bit jarring. We see Sam and other players popping out of the screen in aggressive gladiatorial gaming. We see an epic virtual city, an attractive, white-haired lady, and a man inexplicably playing a futuristic guitar.

Finally, we see a figure in the beloved Tron glow-suit, the screen darkens and a hint of the Bridges beard appears: "Dad," Sam's voice says. "Sam," says the dude. "Long time," Sam says. "You have no idea," says Kevin Flynn. Does Flynn really live or am I living a lie in my new t-shirt?

The screen flashes to Tron: Legacy, and then comes back to give us the roaring hint of a 3D virtual reality motorcycle romp. Then the lights came up, and we were being ushered out of the theater.

The trailer could not have been more than a couple of minutes, a pre-movie standard. The crowd went a bit indignant: "Show it again!" several shouted. People had come from Canada for this!

While people seemed enthusiastic, that was tempered by a feeling that they hadn't seen enough and what was shown wasn't new. "The best fifteen seconds of my life," a guy only half-sarcastically declared as we shuffled out, summing up the experience for most. Others seemed less persuaded. A group I talked to weren't die-hards and had been curious about the screening; one of them had seen fifteen minutes at a Con was annoyed at the whole production.

His friend said that some of the 3D shots felt slightly off, and that the trailer made it seem like "you already know what happens." (It's true that anyone who's seen genre/action movies or any movies could probably put together Tron: Legacy's plot arc, but we're in it for the Bridges.) He went on to wonder if the computer-generated vector look from the first film would really translate in 3D. And the scene of the guy with the guitar moves: "What was up with that?"

Their friend was more optimistic about the whole thing: "I love a movie with daddy issues," he said dryly.

Downstairs, I talked to two fans, Tehnakki and Waterborn, who had come from Boston for the screening. It seemed fitting with the theme of the day that they went by their online handles. Tehnakki had on a great Flynn's Arcade shirt and had enjoyed the trailer, but was somewhat disappointed. None of the footage had been new to them, they said, and felt recycled and repackaged from past Con presentations. Still, were they excited for the new movie? Incredibly so — they had stopped to take pictures by the poster in the lobby. Everyone left talking about Trons old and new amidst the grumblings that we hadn't seen more of the film, which was what the studio wanted from us in the first place. Two decades in, Tron and its offspring's virtual world remains a cyberdream.

Oh, and not only am I sticking the Lost spoilers at the bottom for easy scrolling, I'm also putting the least spoilery items at the beginning and end of the Lost bloc, to minimize the chances you'll see something as you scroll past, Lost spoiler-phobes. Least we can do, really.

Tron Legacy:

We already linked to one review of this movie's script, back in June, but there's a new, quite damning, script review online. However, it's a review of a very early draft, from back when this film was still called Tr2n, and there have been tons of rewrites by Lost's Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis since. It's also entirely possible this is a fake, since it bears little resemblance to the plot descriptions for Tron Legacy we've come across. Still, it's possible some elements linger on.

The film starts with the hacker-proof firewall at Encom, known as X-Net, being breached — and it transpires that the intruder is Tron, who's so obsolete and old-school, the firewall doesn't register him as a threat. X-Net responds with counter-intrusion measures called X-Takks, but Tron gets away. Ecom chief security programmer Rush Nortebi is frantic — especially since Encom is preparing to market X-Net as the perfect unstoppable firewall for other businesses. So Encom CEO Sinclair tells Rush to find the intruder, and this leads Rush and his colleague Megan to open up Flynn's lab, which has been sealed since Flynn was either destroyed or trapped inside the computer years earlier. Rush decides to go inside the computer himself.

Of course, it all goes wrong, and Rush is trapped in the cyber-world. He also gets captured by Megan's cyber-counterpart, a security program called Mega, who takes him to the CPU, known as Plexor — which is Sinclair's cyber-counterpart. Rush convinces Plexor and Mega that Tron is behind the intrusions, and even though they don't believe that Rush is really a User, they agree to let him go after Tron. He teams up with three other programs: Krod, I-Beem, and a giant King Kong-esque formatting program called D-Rezz, who throws "Romballs" that derezz data. They set a trap for Tron in the old game grid. At first Tron gets away, but then Rush catches him and de-rezzes him, taking his code disk.

Then Rush meets Flynn, who reveals that Sinclair/Plexor is the bad guy, and Mega is secretly a double agent, working for Flynn. Sinclair plans to seize control over all computer systems worldwide, with his X-Net program. As Flynn says this, back in the "real" world, ATMs, traffic lights and cellphones all go berzerk, and every TV screen in the world starts showing the same ad for Encom's X-Net software — and instead of marching on Encom's HQ with torches, everybody decides to order three copies of X-Net each.

It turns out that I-Beem is spying for Plexor, who captures Mega and tries to reprogram her. Flynn unleashes "code monkeys" to hack the "Hologon," which would allow him shut down X-Net before it seizes control of everything. And then Rush discovers that he, alone, can use the Tron data disc — and Rush becomes "Tron-ified."

In the final showdown, I-Beem changes sides again, and joins the good guys as they face an onslaught of not only X-Takks, but Cybavors as well. Flynn has a confrontation with Plexor. Rush manages to use the Hologon to shut down X-Net. Everybody, including Flynn, gets back to the real world, where Flynn tells Sinclair he's fired and under arrest. Rush kisses Megan. The end.

Let's be glad this script, even if it's real, probably bears almost no resemblance to the finished product — since there's no mention of Flynn's son, among other things. And yet, you never know if I-Beem or D-Rezz the giant computer ape will turn up, right? [Blue Sky Disney]

The Crazies:

Timothy Olyphant plays Sheriff Dutton, whose dad was sheriff before him and never fired his gun. As the film begins, a local pig farmer walks onto the baseball field during a game, and Dutton has to gun him down in front of everyone. And it just gets (wait for it) crazier from there on, as the mysterious disease sweeps the town. But there are moments of comedy too. [Sci Fi Wire]

And here are a few clips you might not have seen:

Nightmare On Elm St.:

Here's a new TV spot for this slashtastic movie:

Supernatural:

Nooooo Bobby! Producer (and upcoming showrunner) Sera Gamble talks about the pivotal 100th episode, airing April 15:

[A] very important character will sacrifice themselves in a suicide mission. We definitely kept in mind that this was [an important] episode. We wanted to deliver something with real scope; it's about the Archangel Michael. Crises will come to a head for Dean and Castiel. And you'll see characters you never thought you'd see again.

Actually, maybe it's not Bobby. It could be Chuck — whose death would automatically bring an archangel to visit, IIRC. [EW]

Caprica:

Sasha Ruiz talks about what's next for Sam Adama and company:

I think everyone's life is going to get more complicated. It's going to be a lot of fun to watch. You're going to see a lot of characters being put in very compromising situations and having to make very difficult decisions for themselves and others. Things get a lot more complex for Sam, certainly with his loyalties. There seems to be a disconnect at one point between his loyalties to the mob and his loyalties to his home life and it's going to put him in very precarious situations.

[Edge Boston via CapricaTV]

And here are some promo stills for the March 5 episode, "Know Thy Enemy." [CapricaTV]

And a new promo video called "The End Of Everything":

V:

A new promo for this show's return on March 30:

FlashForward:

Another new promo for this future-looking program. Why is the idea that there's going to be another blackout the most shocking possibility of all? It seems like there could be a lot more shocking possibilities than that. Just sayin'.

Meanwhile, Dimitri won't turn into a bad guy, but he is going to start testing how much he can change his fate, starting out with a fairly dramatic action in the next episode. His storyline is the crux of the show's fate-vs-free-will theme. [TV Guide]

Ravi Kapoor will play Malik, a guy whom Aaron Stark meets when he travels to Afghanistan in search of answers about his daughter's military service and disappearance. [TV Guide]

Chuck:

The March 15 episode, directed by Zachary Levi, is a true game-changer. Also, there are a bunch of possibly true, possibly false spoilers for Monday's episode, and I'm too lazy to try and sort out which is true. I'm guessing we will really see Brandon Routh shirtless and Chuck really will kiss Hannah. [EW]

Meanwhile, some unambiguously true spoilers: Someone will get fired. Someone will give birth. Someone (else) learns Chuck's secret. And someone who's not a spy is in deep danger. Also, the Subway product placement is going to get a lot less subtle. [TV Guide]

Lost:

Here are some promo pics and a couple sneak peeks from Tuesday's new episode, "Sundown". [SpoilersLost and Doc Arzt]

Once again, we almost certainly won't be seeing Walt again — but there's an odd hint that the weird child who taunted Smokey in last week's episode was connected to Walt somehow, or might allow us to see the end of Walt's storyline in another form. [TV Guide]

Some set pics prove that Smokey is very interested in that Ajira airplane. [Hawaii on Flickr via SpoilersLost]

Producers Cuse and Lindelof basically explain the whole plot of the next episode. Seriously. [Doc Arzt]

There won't be episodes focusing specifically on Miles, Frank, Ilana or Claire, at least not before episode 6x15 — and probably not after that either. The good news is, we'll get a lot of those characters in other people's "flash-sideways." [EW]

Additional reporting by Josh C. Snyder.

Video via GameTrailers.com.

We're all excited about Tron Legacy, but more so for the return of light cycles and less because of the script — but Universal has given Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (who've also written many episodes of Lost) the task of turning the Ouija Board flick into a film, which I'm assuming is a step above the Viewmaster Movie and a step below the Monopoly film. According to The Hollywood Reporter this is what they are basing the film on.

The studio is looking at the project as a supernatural action-adventure movie. It is possible that certain rules of the game - never use it alone, never use it in a graveyard, always say good-bye - figure into the plot.

Wait a minute, those were the rules????? I thought the rules were if your parents caught you talking to the devil board, you'd be locked in the basement for three days without any light, so the devil's magic would be washed out of your soul. And what about the rule of fucking with the person who brought said board by making it say horrible things, since they are most likely the only person not to be forcing the triangle to spell their will? Also, spelling is boring.

This whole thing is just a ploy to sell more board games that supposedly connect you to the spirit world. And we all know the only way to really talk to ghosts is with the professional Ghost Hunters team and a film crew, duh.

Talking to Coming Soon, Wilde said,

We shot some 20-hour days, we were wearing the suits, which are not easy to wear. I was doing a lot of my own stunts and training a lot of the time. Really pushing myself physically as well as mentally. It was an epic undertaking. It was a HUGE film to shoot in those few days. I was so proud to be a part of it. The morning that we wrapped it was an unbelievable feeling. We all just lost it. It was sunrise and we couldn't believe we were actually done... Now I have so much more empathy and respect for the people who've done it before me... and after. I don't write-off large sci-fi films so flippantly as I did. I look at anyone who's had to put on a rubber suit and I'm, like, "Oh wow, you're awesome! You survived!" (laughs) None of the suits are like our suits, though. Our suits have really risen to a new level of discomfort, but it's brilliant and well worth it. It's totally worth it.

Tron Legacy is scheduled for release December 17th, 2010.

Olivia is Wilde About Tron! [Coming Soon]

Star Trek 2:

Zoe "Uhura" Saldana says J.J. Abrams has promised her that Uhura will get her own fight scene, or at least some kind of action sequence, in the sequel. "I mean, just [let me] kick a guy in the groin or something!" [Cinematical]

Zombieland:

Some new stills focus on the female members of the zombie-killing foursome. [SpoilerTV-Movies]

Dollhouse:

Now that Echo has been re-integrated with her other personalities and started to retain her identity no matter what, things are going to get hairy. The dynamic between Echo and her "original" personality Caroline will be at the center of season two. And in the season opener, where she's married off to Jamie Bamber things go terribly wrong and Echo starts turning back into Caroline under stress. Which could be a good thing, or a bad thing. [E! Online]

Plus the network released some behind-the-scenes clips and interviews with the creators:

Fringe

TV Guide gives us a brief primer on the new season, including the alternate universe:

And EW interviews the cast, who talk about the growing relationships between the characters:

In the season opener, Olivia lets down a bit of her guard and has a few tender moments with Peter. And she even asks him for personal help. [EW]

Here's the official description for the season's third episode, "Fracture:"

Peter, Walter, Olivia and Broyles pursue a strange and deadly occurrence in Philadelphia where a bomb blew up inside a train station but left no trace of any explosive device. The perplexing and unexplained set of circumstances returns Walter to the lab to closely examine the human remains where he uncovers an unlikely energy source that triggered the explosion. With the explosive threat of more bombs and links to a classified military project, the intense investigation leads Olivia and Peter to Iraq.

[Fringe Spoilers]

And John Noble gives some more hints about the new season. [Fringe Television]

Supernatural:

Jeffrey Dean Morgan says he's eager to return to the role of the Winchester boys' daddy, if he can find the time. And he feels like his storyline on the show got cut too soon. He also casts doubt on rumors that a sixth season of Supernatural could feature an entirely new cast, rebooting the show without Jared Padalecki or Jensen Ackles. He htinsk those rumors are just designed to stir up the fans. [Sci Fi Wire]

New promo pics show Sam getting his groove back a little bit. [SpoilerTV]

FlashForward:

New cast promo pics focus on some of the characters besides Mark and Demetri... including Simon, played by Dominic Monaghan. [SpoilerTV]

Warehouse 13:

We'll be seeing more of the evil McPherson coming up. He's in the season finale, where we learn he has ties with two of the women of the Warehouse, making life a lot more difficult for them — and for Artie. [E! Online]

Eureka:

Taggart won't be in Friday's season finale, but actor Matt Frewer says he's in a "wait and see mode" about apperaing next season. [E! Online]

Heroes:

I don't think we've shown you this behind-the-scenes featurette for the returning show yet:

Smallville:

A few new TV spots for next week's season premiere:

Eastwick:

Some new clips from episode four, "Fleas And Casserole":

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown and Lauren Davis.

People talk about Comic Con as the place you go to create the next geek-entertainment sensations — and it's definitely true to some extent. But it's by no means that simple. Nerd tastemakers do get their first look at the next summer's movies, and they do start spreading buzz — but the event is probably best at helping smaller projects get more exposure. If a movie, TV show, comic or novel goes into Comic Con with tons of buzz already, the best you can hope for is simply to keep the momentum going.

Look at last year — Comic Con 2008 had a clear winner (Watchmen) and a clear loser (The Spirit). And the bad exposure at Comic Con definitely hurt The Spirit, but it's hard to argue the event helped Watchmen all that much. Meanwhile, Star Trek stayed away from Comic Con 2008, and did better than almost any movie that actually did panels there. (Looking back, Wolverine did a panel, and it grossed less than Trek domestically.)

So the io9 brain trust got together and figured out which projects we feel came out of Comic Con with more buzz than they had going in. It's highly subjective, but these are the ones we heard more excitement about after SDCC was over.

#1: District 9

This film excited us more than any other. District 9 went into Comic Con with a ton of viral marketing, and not much else. After a full year of wacky alien segregationist signage (Comic Con 2008 was plastered with the stuff, and now it's on bus shelters) we were starting to wonder if this film was just an excuse for an ARG. Then we got to see the actual movie — and suddenly Moon wasn't the only standout indie movie of the year. It didn't hurt, too, that producer Peter Jackson put his considerable mojo to work promoting it. (We managed to corner Jackson for a few minutes of geeking out about monster movies, and he explained how D9 came out of the ashes of the failed Halo movie.) The raves about District 9 were both unanimous and ubiquitous, with everyone either gushing about having seen it or wishing they had.

#2: Zombieland

Another sleeper project, and one that features the overexposed undead, Zombieland crawled out of a buzz grave at Comic Con. This movie was just so gleeful and so outrageously gonzo with its mayhem, and the panel was full of great quotable soundbites. (As opposed to the bland boilerplate we heard on some other panels.) The former TV pilot script does a great job of reinventing the buddy comedy in a fresh way, from the characters named after towns to the pairing of the paranoid Jesse Eisenberg with the gung-ho Woody Harrelson. We were wowed, and so was a capacity crowd in Hall H. The L.A. Times says simply, "Zombieland keeps the movie genre alive."

#3: V

This was a television franchise we weren't sure we wanted to see back again, and yet another remake/reboot that we were leery of. But this show opened our bleary eyes with its moody, weird and scary pilot. The cast, including Firefly's Morena Baccarin and Alan Tudyk and Lost's Elizabeth Mitchell, were snappy and fun to watch. And the old "beware of aliens bearing gifts" trope still turns out to have a decent amount of life left in it. The 4400's Scott Peters brings the right amount of paranoia to a story where the terrorists turn out to be anti-alien freedom fighters, and the media is lying to us all along. We heard several people marveling afterwards that a V remake could be so intriguing. Hollywood Reporter says the screening and panel got a strong Comic Con response."

#4: 9

We've been excited about this film since we first saw Shane Acker's award-winning short film, and every clip has gotten us more thrilled. But the movie's presentation, in the cavernous Hall H, won an uproarious response from people who had never seen anything quite like its style. Rolling Stone's Douglas Wolk (who was on our io9 panel on Thursday) praises its "rich, run-down visual design." The L.A. Times says 9 "snagged" the audience. We felt the excitement in the room, and heard people wondering afterwards about just what kind of movie would get both Tim Burton and Wanted's Timur Bekmambetov on board as producers. (We'll have exclusive interviews with Acker and Bekmambetov, later in the week.)

#5: Felicia Day

Comic Con is pretty much Felicia Day's home town, but this year she ruled more than ever. Her panel for The Guild was one of the big hits of the Con (we heard people talking about it days afterwards) and her booth for the Guild was a major destination. Tubefilter says Day had an "entrance typically reserved for A-list movie stars" at her panel, where she announced Wil Wheaton was joining the cast. And Dark Horse announced a Guild comic. But oh yeah — she also starred in the unaired Dollhouse episode, which completely rocked our world. And Joss announced that her post-apocalyptic survivalist character would be turning up again in Dollhouse season two. All she needed was the announcement of a musical about cyborg Penny, and she'd have ruled the entire con.

#6: Tron 2

Actually, the biggest winner of Comic Con 2008? Was probably Tron Legacy, or Tron 2.0, or Tr2n. Whatever they're calling it this week, the Disney sequel generated as much excitement with one amazing surprise clip of lightcycles as any other property did with a whole panel and banners everywhere. This year, Tron built on that excitement, with a clip that showcased more of its storyline. But honestly, nothing about Tron's Comic Con panel generated a tenth as much chatter as the recreation of Flynn's arcade, complete with video games we'd only played in our dreams. And a real lightcycle. That was all people wanted to talk about for days.

#7: Richard Kadrey

His new novel Sandman Slim comes out in August (we'll be reviewing it soon) and we witnessed several awestruck conversations about the cyberpunk veteran's Comic Con prowess. People talked about his three-book deal with Eos, and Sandman Slim has gotten raves from Cory Doctorow and William Gibson. There were whispers that Hollwood was paying attention, and that's part of what Comic Con is for.

#8: Stargate Universe

The Stargate franchise is rivaling Star Trek for number of consecutive years on the air, and number of shows with things like SG-1 or DS9 after the franchise name. So there's been some doubt as to whether SGU would be true to Stargate and feel fresh and interesting. But the new trailer got people ramped up, and the producers said the right things about keeping this show true to the franchise's traditions. And then Robert Carlyle said the thing about how everybody was going to die. And we were pretty much sold. We also overheard tons of hallway conversations from people surprised they were stoked about Stargate again. The San Diego Union Tribune calls SGU "promising" and says it's one of a few shows that prove "there could be light at the end of our sci-fi TV apocalypse."

#9: Sherlock Holmes

Everybody expected Iron Man 2 to be fun and to feature Samuel L. Jackson swaggering as Nick Fury. And awesome Tony Stark banter and outbursts. We even kinda expected War Machine to turn up. Iron Man 2 lived up to our expectations. But none of us expected Robert Downey Jr.'s other movie to be so much fun, and so full of Victorian verve and rocky bromance between Downey and Jude Law as Watson. We were disappointed when producer Joel Silver told us this film wasn't steampunk, but we certainly heard lots of people suddenly talking about Sherlock. Associated Press quotes Downey as calling Sherlock Holmes an "intellectual superhero." So yeah, Iron Man didn't lose any buzz, that we could see. But Sherlock noticeably gained some.

#10: Avatar

James Cameron's space epic had the biggest hype, and thus the most to lose. So it's not surprising there's a bit of an "Avatar backlash." But like we said yesterday, even most of the detractors were saying things like, "I still think it'll be great, but..." And while the footage we saw wasn't photorealistic, it was an improvement on any CG world-building we'd ever seen before. As long as this movie avoids coming across as too preachy, it stands a great chance of capitalizing on Comic Con excitement. When you have the Kansas City Star reporting that a packed room of screaming fans gave Avatar a "resounding endorsement," that's buzz.

Flynn's Arcade image by JoelTelling on Flickr. Felicia Day image by GeekGirlDiva on Flickr.

We'll go into more detail tomorrow, but for the moment, feast your eyes on the replicated arcade below, as well as some exclusive sketches of the light cycle followed by the two-wheeled wonder itself. For more on the light cycle, head on over to Jalopnik.

Additional reporting and photography by Julia Carusillo.

Note, Bridges is without beard presently.

First take a look at these incredible-looking tokens to Flynn's Arcade. But in the sequel, Flynn has mysteriously vanished. At least that's what has been rumored, and is now being implied on the Flynn Lives site. The followers are dedicated to uncovering the mystery of Flynn's disappearance including a time line and an assortment of clippings about Encom's CEO.

1989 — Kevin Flynn alleged to "disappear." Initial facts raise many questions. Many of us were suspicious.

1990 — Sightings of Kevin Flynn by ordinary citizens, including high-credibility "Level 3" sightings of Flynn in NYC's Central Park during a Shakespeare Festival, on the fringes of a San Francisco street fair, and the notorious "Elvira" sighting of Kevin Flynn at Halloween celebrations in West Hollywood, California. Unfortunately, these initial sightings display certain characteristics true to this day — nothing has been confirmed and photographic evidence has been lacking.

1992 — Sightings continue. Several of us make contact thru Usenet and begin correspondence.

1994 — First Flynn Lives! meet-up in Dayton, Ohio. We resolve to continue our efforts to find out the facts behind the mysterious disappearance.

1998 — Letter from Kevin Flynn to a founding member of the group gains media attention, then debunked. Founding member (now ex-member) checks into a mental hospital for observations.

2001 — A $5,000 award is offered to anybody who can prove Kevin Flynn is alive. By December 31st, alas, nobody had satisfied our jury and the money was spent on a great party for all of the "Troniacs" we know and love!

2002 - 2005 An era of low visibility for our group. Sightings drop off, and interest seems to slacken. Thank heavens that is over!

2007 - Interest picks up as the "Albino Cow" Flynn sighting in southern New Jersey energizes a new generation of activists.

Here are a collection of fake clippings documenting the CEO's mysterious disappearance.

So dust off your unitards, it's Tron time, bitches. BRING ON THE ARG's and day-glow lights, we're ready. Also, we're hoping the countdown hidden beneath the dancing spider is for the Comic Con panel — seems like it.

CC2K previewed the Tron 2 script and praises Steven Lisberger's original work for having innovated new ways of representing the "lives" of computer programs and the ways in which hacking alters the reality of the cyber-world. The review comes down on the new script for not quite following suit. Specifically, the new screenplay doesn't repesent hacking quite the same way, from the Space Paranoids nod to original creator Flynn's video game work, to speedy racing inside the mainframe programs versus Tron. In particular, they have a problem that the fake war scenario of hacking has been turned into a fake race, where in the original it was represented as fighting.

I say the rule of Tron should be: if it looks good, just do it. The race is going to look slick as hell (remember the Comic Con footage). There doesn't have to be much real reasoning as to why the computer would interpret a hack program into a physical race any more than it has to justify digitizing a human being into a computer, and then keeping them there... what do they eat? Where do they go the restroom for that matter?

But if you want to hear more on this fact, check out the article they really go into it. Me, well, I just want to know where Jeff Bridges is and if he'll have that crazy beard (I've heard mixed reviews about the beard's existence). In the new script, the Dude himself is now trapped inside the Encom's main frame, and has been for years, unbeknownst to his son (yes he has a son now in the real world). The real Flynn has been leading a light cycle resistance against evil viral forces from inside the main frame — oh, and he's not crazy or a god...nuts.

So it's into the computer we go with Sean Flynn (Flynn's son), either on purpose to find his dad or by accident (it's not explained). One inside they'll have to prevent the new evil CEO (there's another one) from infecting the world or something.

Here's the stuff that's new that I'm most excited about, these two characters:

D-Rezz and I-Beem. D-Rezz is a, " powerful deletion utility that helps out the heroes. Has the potential to be pretty cute. He growls menacingly at various bad guys while clobbering them and dies in a scene sure to distress the kiddies." I is described as a "A frazzled denizen of the cyber-world. I'm not sure what kind of app he is, but he can teleport from one place to another." Both sound like cute little additions to the sparsely built mainframe of yesteryear.

There is actual data surfing, like surfing. So that's going to be horrendous to watch, I'm sure, but funny for all of us who stopped using "surfing the web" terms years ago. A memory leak is represented as green goo, and in the real world Flynn is a cautionary urban legend, told amongst nerds, about a man who went into the computer.

What did you think of the picture of the new suits that just leaked last week?

If you think about it, that picture tells you a pretty fair amount of what they are doing. They are carrying on the essential items, or ideals, from the original. And that's that the programs, which are the characters you see running around on set in spandex, will have the faces of their programmers, or human counterparts. Also maybe one has somehow escaped the computer and is running loose in the real world. (If that's what they are doing. We don't know that).

What did you think about the Comic Con footage, even thought it was test footage?

If you compare the Comic Con suits to the ones in the original, the Comic Con suits appear to be all computer generated. They're not limited to what we've seen before. There was a texture, and different lighting intensities on the character, so they've got a lot more freedom.

What do you think about the new light cycles?

I think that those are a logical extension of the original. Syd Mead's original light cycle was his impression of what the future would be, and it's really come to pass more than a little bit. Even in todays real world. I drive a Lexus RX 350, if you turn your head and squint a little bit, it's really not all that far from a light cycle, a little bit.

Part of what I loved about the original is that they couldn't get real fancy, with textures and generating things inside the computer world. My greatest fear with a new Tron movie was that they would try and update the look along the lines of something like Doom and make it very first-person shooter. I think that would really destroy the look of the world inside the computer. What we saw in the Comic Con footage made me feel like they are very consciously trying to stay away from that.

Let's talk about Jeff Bridges, old and young, both in the same movie?

I don't know if the footage really showed Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, the presumed CEO of ENCOM inside the computer, you could debate that. That being said I really liked that his character is not the "good guy" that we saw in the original. There's more depth there, there's much more room for him to be a lot of different things. From that clip, we really don't know what's different yet — other than he may not be as much of a good guy anymore. That story can go in many different types of directions, and I think that's fantastic.

What do you think about Flynn being ageless in the computer?

Well you know, everybody thinks of themselves as younger and better looking than they really are. So it's not at all unreasonable for a programmer to have a younger avatar.

Where do you see ENCOM today?

Let's project Encom 25 years in the future? Well Encom, at the time, was showing itself to be a diversified computer manufacturing and research facility. That sounds an awful lot like IBM doesn't it? In 25 years IBM changed from that to a manufacturer or [provider of] services. Encom may or may not have gone that way. It's entirely possible that they stuck to building computers and computer software. Assuming that they survived as a valid corporate entity, which seems to be the case based on what we've seen, they could be making the most powerful computers on the planet. If so that in turn means that the programs running on those computers are a lot more capable, bigger, and a lot more well rounded and fleshed out.

A lot of the actors besides Bridges are coming back, how do you feel about getting the old cast back together?

I think their return is great, I would really like to see Cindy Morgan return as well. To the best of my knowledge, she is not involved. I think that's a shame because [we've become friends over the years]. I can say authoritatively that 25 years after Tron, she is still babealicious in a unitard. I know she would love to be involved.

What do you want to see happen in the new movie?

I don't have a lot of a opinion story-wise, it's not my story to tell. What I loved most [about the original was], it was a way to look inside the computer. Some things were hokey, some things were dead on. Some things that we thought were out of this world turned out to be prophetic. I mean programs fighting each other? Today we have anti-virus programs and spyware killers. That kind of prophecy is something I would like to see in the new movie.

So now that Sark is gone we're going to need a new evil computer voice? Any one you'd like to see?

Really and truly I think David Warner as the bad guy in the original was very good. I would like to see him somehow involved in the new one, although I'm not quite as certain about that. It could be argued with Dilinger gone and Sark destroyed there isn't anything of him left of him in the Encom world. There are a lot of folks who could do a great computer voice form Miley Cyrus to James Earl Jones.

Has anyone reached to you for a cameo?

Not a word, I have not been asked, and I would dearly love to. Everytime that I see a discussion about it on the net, someone will always ask, "Is Tron Guy in it?" I would dearly love to be involved with it in just about any capacity. If they asked me, I'm there.

We think its a travesty that Tron Guy hasn't been asked for a quick walk on cameo on the new Tron film. He can be in the background having coffee or eating a hot dog not even digitized, he needs to be a part of this, it would be wrong to make it without TG. Do the right thing, Tron Guy for Tron 2. That being said, we thank him immensely for taking time away from disc fighting for us.

Slashfilm has a look at the Vancouver set of Tron 2, where one possible extra is resting, before heading off to battle Jeff Bridges' evil beard, or possibly a younger version of Bridges.

Okay, we don't really know if this is an actual suit, for all we know it could be an enthusiastic sound guy, or Tron Guy's son. Click on over to Slashfilm for a better look, along with another set photo of the high tech Encom building where, I'm guessing, the digitizing will take place.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not a Tron hater. For one thing, it has gigantic potential to raise the bar on FX. That said, maybe it's time to dial up the notch on the costumes or release some "leaked" concept art - or at least a concept headband idea, please?

Slashfilm discovered this little gem in the Vancouver Sun:

"Vancouver post-production units are salivating at the prospects presented by the Disney remake of Tron, which carries a whopping $300 million budget and opportunities aplenty for effects and digital polish."

What? Last time we checked James Cameron's Avatar isn't even that high yet. (Though I still think Cameron is low balling exactly how much he spent on his alien space epic - Time estimated in the low to mid 200 million).

If 300 mill is Tron 2's real budget, let's get ready for some ground breaking special FX, because they're certainly paying for it. In a deluge of reincarnated franchises, maybe Tron 2 is trying to stand out by hosing the production with cash. Plus, the work will have to not only surpass the 80s flick but put a futuristic spin on it too. Even though we're excited to see Jeff Bridges again, and to check out the hopefully amazing effects, we have some ideas about better ways to spend that $300 million.

How We Would Spend Tron 2's $300 Million Budget:

1. Build actual light cycles

2. Buy Wolverine nemesis Gambit 1,000 new shirts (but keep the sassy hats)

3. Construct a giant squid and roleplay the correct ending to Watchmen

4. Turn Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell into an HBO miniseries

5. Go on a drug-induced Fear And Loathing-style yacht expedition to Lost's Island and pay Michael Emerson to accompany us on the trip

6. Pay Kirsten Dunst to not sign on for Spider-Man 4 unless they rip the plot from Spider-Man Reign, where Spidey's atomic sperm kills MJ.

7. Direct io9 original movie Finding Glory.

Serinda Swan says that she, Beau Garrett (Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer) and two other actresses play "temptresses from inside the computer world." She explains:

We're sort of the main guy's go-to girls. There are lights actually sewn into our wardrobe, so it's like nothing you've seen before!

By the "main guy," does she mean Kevin Flynn's evil cyber-self, or someone else? And whom exactly are these "temptresses" trying to tempt? Sean Flynn, Kevin's son? This could get ooky pretty quick.

Meanwhile, Swan, who plays Zatanna in tonight's Smallville, says she actually played her spells backwards on her ipod so she could memorize those lines backwards — when you replay her dialogue backwards, it'll sound intelligible, she promises. And Clark's mysterious wish is one that "turns him upside down." Also, she wants to find the spell-book to bring back her father, Zatara, because he died protecting her. The episode leaves the door open for her to return.

[TV Guide]

Ain't It Cool News got the scoop from a source on the movie's Vancouver lot. Apparently it starts out in 1989, where Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) has created a ton of best-selling games based on his Game Grid challenges, from the first film. He's marketed everything he saw in there, as toys and action figures. Then Flynn disappears, leaving behind his seven-year-old son Sean. Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) takes over Flynn's company.

Then we jump forward to the present day, and Sean is now a twentysomething. Bradley gives Sean info that causes him to search for his dad, and the search leads him to Flynn's old arcade, and inside the computer world. Sean meets the CLU character (Flynn's computer avatar in the first movie). Flynn programmed the CLU to make the computer world a better place, but the CLU got corrupted and is creating its own interpretation of "improving the world." CLU is trying to eradicate a type of program called ISOs, and the ISOs believe Sean Flynn will save them from the CLU's attacks.

And somewhere, out there, the real Kevin Flynn is whizzing around on a classic lightcycle. Sean has to find his real dad and enlist his aid against his preternaturally young computer avatar. There's a light cycle versus light jet duel, with both the cycle and the jet creating light walls. And a huge disc battle.

It sounds like fun, and the possibilities of the two generations of Flynns teaming up against the computer image of Flynn, frozen in youth, sound almost endless. Here's hoping! Oh, and supposedly the actual title will be "Tron" plus something after a colon.

While he was designing cars for VW, Simon also designed cars for a fictional company located in another galaxy called Cosmic Motors. In 2007 he published a book of Cosmic Motors designs, and created a website for the company, complete with an elaborate back story about its founding in 8966. Though the founders perished in a tragic space crash, their daredevil, spaceship-loving daughters took over the firm.

If Simon's designs for Tron 2 look anything like the Detonator above, or either of these luscious creations, we're totally sold on the concept design for the movie. These cars are what the cool kids call cherry.See more of Simon's amazing designs on his website. Thanks, J!