TRON: ARES Lightcycles revamps old ideas from Joseph Kosinski’s lost sequel

It’s been 43 years since the public first crossed the digital frontier Tronand now the network has rebooted once again Tron: Ares.

The long-awaited third chapter follows Ares (Jared Leto), an advanced program that begins to question CEO Julian Dillinger’s orders (Evan Peters). His rebellion sends him into the real world on a mission to find Eve Kim (Greta Lee), current CEO of Encom.

As Encom and Dillinger Systems fight to uncover Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), the lines between man and machine are more blurred than ever.

For set designer Darren Gilfordreturning to the grid after fifteen years was an opportunity to resurrect ideas that had been set aside by the director Joseph Kosinskiis the abandoned sequel to Tron: Legacy.

“There were a lot of things that were carried over,” Gilford reveals. “Joe wanted to be [the sequel] to be more real-world based, and the Dillinger grid has always been there since the beginning.

“We started in 2015 or 2016, and then I had started the first concept art with a [different] team of concept artists and an art department. I could go back with Joachim [Rønning] and gather some of those key elements.

The evolution of the concept is most clearly manifested in Ares‘ elegant lightweight military-inspired motorcycles. During a high-speed chase between Eve, Ares and Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith), the production built full-scale Dillinger motorcycles for the actors to ride, complete with practical motorcycles to match.

Gilford explains: “As we developed the film and learned what the characters had to do, we had to understand what the rules of the light cycle are.

“The most important thing was that the lightweight bike had to have two critical riding positions and an aggressive high-speed position, which is my favorite look of the bike. When the full canopy is opened and the packs open, it really seems as if the rider is enveloped and engulfed, like man and machine.”

Bringing these bikes to life wasn’t just about looks, it required a bit of technological wizardry worthy of Encom itself.

“We created a power source in the center of the bike, a yellow gyroscope that spins and comes alive,” Gilford says. “The way the bike moves, that transmits some of the motion of the bike. That yoke is the heart of the bike and what the hinges are, so the front fork and the front wheel actually rotate around that power source.”

While Tron: Legacy Featuring digital lightweight bicycles, Ares brings things into the real world with full-sized functional bicycles.

“ON Inheritancewe never built a real bike until the end. We built them just for marketing. We built the original bikes [digitally] and we built gimbals and rigs for Garrett [Hedlund].

“But for this film, Joachim was adamant that he wanted real bikes on the road to be towed in every way possible. I have a background in transportation design and was originally a car designer, so it was an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to design these vehicles,” says Gilford.

With Tron: AresGilford and director Joachim Rønning aren’t just pushing the visual envelope, they’re also carrying forward the design DNA that Joseph Kosinski began creating nearly a decade ago. The result is a perfect fusion between concept and reality.

Source: Variety