Exclusive: Behind the scenes at Sci-Fi-London 9 & catchup

With only 6 days to go till SCI-FI-LONDON 9 kicks off - this post may be coming in a bit late. But a little while ago, just before Ay-yah-FYAH-plah-yer-kuh-duhl's eruption thew the world into disarray, SFL9 48hour Film Challenge started and ended (the shortlist of which can be found here!)

I was fortunate enough to pop into the Apollo Piccadilly Cinema for a brief chat with Sci-Fi-London legend & Founder Louis Savy.

I say fortunate because, well, it's always good to chat to a fellow Sci Fi aficionado but on this particular day SCI-FI-LONDON had just received some packages, this included some boxes from Last Exit to Nowhere that had the SCI-FI-LONDON 9 Festival's brand spanking new T-Shirts - featuring this year's theme in title Life in 2050. Louis led me into the most secret of secret places - behind the curtain of a cinema to SCI-FI-LONDON 9's satellite HQ where I got the chance to take these these pics. Apologies some of the pics were taken with my iPhone.

I think the design is very reminiscent of Tron. Anyone else see this? I mentioned this to Louis and in return he dropped that the Tron: Legacy Trailer will be screened at SCI-FI-LONDON 9. He also mentioned a couple of other tasty morsels which I can't talk about yet.

If you haven't seen it big screen yet I whole heartedly suggest that the some 2 minutes of pyroclastic visuals is worth the ticket of admission alone. While I was there Louis also unpacked some form fitting Ladies version of the T-shirts. And yes I was lucky enough to score one of the rather fetching Shirts for myself.

Louis had also just received (literally opening the new package in front of me) the full programme for the SCI-FI-LONDON 9 FESTIVAL. Which I took home and poured over. This year's line up is pretty damn spectacular and I hope to have my comments on the full programme up soon. Bear in mind that I as yet have not seen any of the new films that will be shown at the SFL Festival because they are that new.

The opening night screening of Vincenzo Natali & Guillermo del Toro's Splice has now sold out. Tickets for both the UK Premieres of Timer and cult classic Nothing are currently 50% sold out and tickets are going fast. Yay! The Drones screening has been moved to a bigger screen and more tickets are now available.

TIMER

DRONES

Just a note on Vincenzo Natali's Nothing - It has never been seen in the UK and there are no plans for a DVD release – this may be the only chance to see this movie.

NOTHING

There are tickets still available for the hot ticketed THE FAITH WARS - The ideological square-off between religion and science. This is sure to be the one debate not to miss.

Keep an eye out for my thoughts on each of the films to be screened at SFL9 right here. For up to date news on the SCI-FI-LONDON 9 Festival or to interact - follow @SCIFILONDON.

Exclusive: Behind the scenes at Sci-Fi-London 9 & catchup

Where
Apollo Piccadilly Circus
19 Regent Street, London, SW1Y 4LR

When
28 April - 3 May 2010

More info at SCI-FI-LONDON or book here!

Tron if done by Saul Bass Posters & Titles

More astounding fan art. By now you have seen the Hexagonall Tron titles if they were done by Saul Bass clip. Today we got an email letting us know that Hexagonall had created 8 posters to support the Saul Bass Tron titles clip. Awesome stuff.

Tron vs. Saul Bass from Hexagonall on Vimeo.

Saul Bass was an American graphic designer and Academy Award-winning filmmaker, but he is best known for his design on animated motion picture title sequences.

During his 40-year career he worked for some of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers, including most notably Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Amongst his most famous title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm, the text racing up and down what eventually becomes a high-angle shot of the United Nations building in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, and the disjointed text that raced together and was pulled apart for Psycho (1960).

To see bigger versions of the posters head over to Hexagonall's blog here: http://hexagonall.com/blog/

Tron if done by Saul Bass Posters & Titles

Ridley & Tony Scott's new Blade Runner?

This week we have heard two pieces of Blade Runner news that may be related. Let's start with the most recent "flash".

A few weeks ago Henry Jenkins (a Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts as well as all round Convergence Culture player) sat down with with Steven Lisberger (director of the original Tron) to discuss Tron; its social relevance of, his experience of making Tron and how Tron: Legacy fits.

The discussion is currently made up of 9 clips, with more to come. In the first clip, in reference to people connecting with ground breaking Sci Fi from a certain period - Henry Jenkins says at around 4:22 :

“with the Scott Brothers returning to Blade Runner, with a new project right now which is roughly the same vintage.”

The full post and interview clips can be seen over here on Henry Jenkins website. It's insightful a well worth a browse.

We suspect that Jenkins is referring to "Purefold" a web series to be developed by Ag8, Ridley and Tony Scott’s RSA Films and Baby Cow Productions. The series was to consist of five- to 10-minute webisodes set shortly before 2019, when Blade Runner took place and aimed initially at the Web moving to television.

Which brings me to the second news flash this week , yesterday we were given the heads up that the Purefold project had been cancelled! You can read the full statement on the Ag8 website here.

We still live in hope of Blade Runner being revisited.

Update #1: 29 March
After a bit of digging we found a video presentation from Ag8 that pitches/explains Purefold, the people involved and touches on how it is related to Blade Runner. Wow! It really was an ambitious project that seems a little ahead of its time. I'm hoping that it's reincarnated at some point.

b.TWEEN 09 - Ag8 talk about Purefold from info btween on Vimeo.

Ridley & Tony Scott's new Blade Runner?

Tron: Legacy Trailer

Sam Flynn (Hedlund), a rebellious 27-year-old, is haunted by the mysterious disappearance of his father Kevin Flynn (Bridges), a man once known as the world's leading video-game developer. When Sam investigates a strange signal sent from the old Flynn's Arcade -- a signal that could only come from his father-- he finds himself pulled into a digital world where Kevin has been trapped for 20 years. With the help of the fearless warrior Quorra (Wilde), father and son embark on a life-or-death journey across a cyber universe -- a universe created by Kevin himself that has become far more advanced with vehicles, weapons, landscapes and a ruthless villain who will stop at nothing to prevent their escape.

Tron: Legacy Trailer

Tron: Legacy trailer breakdown from the first screening

OK! I'm going to skip the arriving at the IMAX and how we got to this point preamble (catch up here!) and cut straight to the good stuff:

On entry to the IMAX we each got a Flynn Lives T-Shirt. Apparently there is a code hidden on one? of the shirts that may be revealed under a black light. The code should be entered over here > http://www.flynnlives.com/derez/ .Please check peeps. I'm guessing that the 5 fields correspond to the 5 cities that the trailer is screening in and once the codes have been entered the trailer will be available for all.

My memory may be a bit sketchy as the trailer was over before my synapse could process the aural and visual stimulus before me and I'm writing this after passing by the Secret Banksy Cinema, the entrance to the disused tube station used in Die Another Day and a walk along the river.

If you are unfamiliar with Tron below is a synopsis (adapted from Daniel Williamson's) of the original 1982 classic Tron. Also it's probably worth noting that Tron was as much of a game changer in it's day as Avatar is today (without the global success) as it was one of the first films from a major studio to use computer graphics extensively.

Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) was one of the top programmers at ENCOM. After being let go under dubious circumstances he finds himself running a games arcade - Flynn's Arcade. Flynn has been trying to hack into ENCOM's mainframe computer to find evidence that ENCOM's senior executive Ed Dillinger stole four video games he created. The huge ongoing success of these games ensured ENCOM's success and fuelled Dillinger's rise to the top. But Dillinger's supercomputer "Master Control Program" foils Flynn's efforts and dictates and controls most of the computer systems.

One night, Flynn's former girlfriend Lora and her boyfriend, ace computer programmer Alan Bradley helps Flynn break into ENCOM to shut down the MCP with Alan's security program "TRON". But the MCP uses Lora's matter transmission program and converts Flynn into data and sends him into the computer. Flynn finds himself in a electronic world ruled by the MCP and his evil chief henchman Sark, where computer programs are the alter-egos of their creators and are forced to compete in gladiatorial games. With help from Tron, a heroic and fearless security program and his lover, Yori, Flynn sets out destroy the MCP and help Tron liberate the system from the MCP's control, by destroying the MCP is Flynn's only way of returning to the real world.

Before you read the trailer breakdown watch the TRON: Evolution trailer below. It gives a really good feel for the new world of Tron. The Lightcycles and Recognizer ships are very similar to the Tron Legacy vehicles. I should mention that there were no sightings of the yellow suited villain and the Tron suits in the Legacy are way better.

My narrative may be stilted as I am dashing this down and may not convey the superb sound quality and visual spectacle that made this trailer awesome. The screen lights up (not using the full towering height of the IMAX). What follows is 150 seconds of cinema that is going to be the next biggest thing.

We open on the 3D logo of Walt Disney that derezs into a 2D modern day LA and moves quickly into a discussion between a now older Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) (http://encominternational.com/people.htm) from the original Tron and a edgy/gritty Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) think James Franco without the pot.

The discussion they are having is something to the effect of:

Alan Bradley: I told you if I ever heard anything about what happened to your father, I would let you know. Something weird happened yesterday, I received a mysterious call. The call came from your father's office above his arcade, a number that has been unused/disconnected for 20/25 years.

Sam Flynn: He's been missing for 20/25 years It's like you think I'm going to get there and find him working frantically on his computer saying something like "Sorry kiddo I've been working late".

Alan Bradley: Your father wouldn't have just left he called me 2 days before he disappeared to tell me he was working on something, something that would change computers, economics, religion, the world everything. Something happened to him.

Cut to Sam Flynn getting onto what looked like a Ducati motorbike. Some sort of quick chase on "LA" highways ending with Sam pulling off a jump into an exit road like an 80s BMX'er. OK! So we know that Sam Flynn can handle a bike in the real world. That will probably be handy later on.

Sam arrives at a dilapidated Flynn's Arcade.

Walking around on the interior we see a dusty arcade, games under dust covers.

This is a pretty faithful re-creation of the original Flynn's Arcade. Sam fiddling with an arcade game and a slo-mo of a token falling out of the coin mechanism on the floor with a clink.

More looking around. Ending on a lone arcade game away from the others. After some checking and fiddling the Arcade game comes away from the wall on a hinge. Much the set up (but in much higher quality and cooler) as the San Diego Tron event a while back. Click the image below for the video.

The game comes away from the wall revealing a secret room. We see Sam Flynn looking around and finding what looks like his fathers old a secret room/office, computer turning on, etc, and entering a code/IP Address 200..

We enter the world of Tron in 3D. This is an ultra slick, stylised black glass world featured in the Tron Legacy VFX footage (only better) and the Tron: Evolution video game trailer and we see:
Sam walking along a tunnel (visualised in the Pitcell image) jump cut with scenes from the world of Tron; Sam coming to terms with the suit, a Tron version of Olivia Wilde lying down on a chaise lounge, digital lightning storms, a slo-mo of a yellow disc activating and being thrown by someone in a fight scenario, some sort of all white/yellow long haired character air guitaring (this maybe Michael Sheen villanious Tron character - think one of the abino twins from The Matrix, Ziggy Stardust, Wez from the Road Warrior, Gorshin's Riddler and Bowie from Labyrinth), Kevin Flynn's face close up and he may be watching the playing arena from his jail above

the playing area as in the VFX footage, Sam controlling an AWESOME Recognizer, Sam and Olivia Wilde's character getting up and close as seen in the image released earlier,

a voice-over of Sam saying: "Dad is that you? You've been gone along time" or "it's been a long time" Kevin Flynn responding : "Yea, you have no idea", a scene of Tron warriors lining up for some sort of face off including a young Clu (Kevin Flynn's Tron alter ego) - this echoes the previous VFX footage and a lightcycle contest from eye level and arcade POV from above, zipping and glass shattering smashes.

At this point Sam comes to the end of the tunnel and I think there was a voice over "Welcome to the Pitcell". Tron Legacy titles rez up.

My initial thoughts after the trailer are:

• Too quick and too short
• This film is going to be cool, I mean really cool.The kind of cool that made the Matrix popular (which was an adapted version of the original Tron). Disney please don't drop the ball from now to the December release this may be my new favourite film
• Avatar may have changed the game but Tron has the benefit of moving ahead unhindered by the barrier that Avatar had to steam roll.

On the negative side:

• The trailer was way too short and we should have got another screening.But Disney are obviously employing the first taste is free, treat them mean and keep them keen tactic.
• I don't recall any Daft Punk sounding music.

What do you remember, have I missed anything, have I added stuff, what are your thoughts? Please leave comments below. I'm off to check my 2 T-Shirts under a make do blue light.

Tron: Legacy trailer breakdown from the first screening.

Tron Legacy London Viral Event

Sometime around July 21 last year US film Bloggers started receiving mysterious packages that included 2 coins. Arcade coins to be exact, with the words "FLYNN’s ARCADE" printed on the one side and "Home of Tron" on the other.

OK! So Flynn's Arcade was the the games arcade that Kevin Flynn owned (played and created games in) in the 1982 film Tron. Turns out that this was the first step in an immersive viral campaign that involved cryptic code puzzles leading to www.flynnlives.com. The site outlined a short bio of Kevin Flynn and a history of the Flynn movement. This can be found here www.flynnlives.com/default.htm The site also had a countdown and further cryptic clues that led to a real world search and ended with the convergence of fans and bloggers at Flynn's Arcade in San Diego.

Once they were inside they were treated to:

- Classic arcade games
- Tron Legacy concept art
- A preview of a Daft Punk song from the Tron Legacy Soundtrack
- A Tron Lightcycle
- T-Shirts and posters to the countdown website

As well as appearances by Garrett Hedlund the actor who plays the son of Flynn and Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli from Heroes). Pretty damn spectacular!!

The flip side of the coin (Home of Tron) led to http://www.homeoftron.com/ which has some background to Flynn's arcade, Space Paranoid his most popular game and his disappearance.

OK! So this week US Bloggers again started receiving packages with clues tying into the newly revised http://flynnlives.com/ZeroHour website. The top of the website is a cryptic countdown, which has been calculated to end at 8am(PST) Wednesday 24, 2010 which is 4pm over here in London and one day before Disney's Alice in Wonderland World Premiere.

The bottom part of the page started out as a unintelligible code and has slowly evolved into the names of 25 Cities. London being the last on the list and the reason you are reading this.

The list is as follows:
Sydney, Denver, Madrid, Paris, Boston, Washington DC, Orlando, Atlanta, Raleigh, San Diego, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, Austin, Minneapolis, Nashville, Chicago, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Las Vegas, Phoenix, London.

So something is going to happen in each of these cities at 4pm on Wednesday 24 February. Speculation is that this may be the time and location of:

- A Daft Punk gig
- The opening of a number of Flynn's Arcades
- The release of the first official Tron Legacy Trailer (clips seen so far have been VFX test Footage) in 2D prior to a 3D version at the Alice in Wonderland Premiere the following day.
- Disney Shops will demo Tron arcade games
- The start to a scavenger hunt to a location of a Tron event similar to The Dark Knight viral last year.

It would be great to hear your comments or touch base with a view to possibly banding together if there is a scavenger hunt.

Update 1 - 24 February: theestablishingshot.com received an email this morning confirming that a Tron Legacy event will be taking place today and 25 people are needed.

From: unite@flynnlives.com (Flynn Lives)
Subject: The fight continues...

To all those who passionately believe that Kevin Flynn, digital pioneer and legendary game designer, is still alive... LISTEN UP!

Our last event at Flynn’s Arcade was a call-to-arms for those of us who won't buy into Encom-driven public propaganda about what happened. We're not crazy - there's more to this story than they are letting out.

Today, we have the chance to find out more... to get closer to the truth. WE NEED YOUR HELP!

PREPARE FOR THE NEXT PHASE OF OUR MISSION

We need operatives in 25 different cities around the world on Wednesday, February 24th. Organize now. For more information visit:

FlynnLives.com/ZeroHour

ALSO…

The Flynn Lives website is about to launch private Member Profile pages to better organize our group. If you haven't already, click here to set up your username and password.

Sweeeeet! Looks like there is going to be a Tron based scavenger hunt. I'm hoping that it ends at at a Flynn’s Arcade with a Light cycle. But who knows? Please get in touch/sign up if you would like to band together on this. At a minimum I think we'll be the first to see the first Tron Legacy Trailer. By my (unconfirmed) calculations we should be getting the next clue at 4:00pm today at http://www.flynnlives.com/zerohour/.

OK! So the game was afoot at 4:00pm on the 24th as I calculated. 3 of the 25 cities went active. At 5:01pm it became apparent that 3 cities would be made active per hour. Unsure of when London would be active I based my self near Waterloo - within easy reach of both the IMAX and The Namco games arcade. The London leg of the game started at at 6:00pm. Via the zerohour website we were instructed to head to:

Red 5 in Selfridges, Oxford Street London. Damn! That was a long way for me to trek in a short time. I knew that at least 1 other player @agentlex (an experienced ARG agent) was located half way there at Piccadilly Circus. However he was on foot whilst I was on my trusty steel steed cycle. I bombed it towards Oxford Street careful to abide to all street signs and rules. I stopped halfway through Soho and made a costly mistake.

I tracked down the telephone number for Red 5 via the Selfridges national number found on their website using my iPhone. I asked the Red 5 staff to access the current situation in-store. They said they would have a look around and I should call back. 6:22pm - Once I was in sight of Oxford Street I called them back. Contact had already been made.

The pickup was actually made by @sowasred2012 . I had been beaten , glory and all the good stuff to follow were @sowasred2012's. Once I got back to MI9 I discovered that the winning operatives each received a mobile phone and a number to call. Once they called the number they were directed to a second location where they could find a Tron branded wallet within the wallet they found; 3 vintage Tron cards with codes on them, 2 hardcopies of the newspaper articles from Flynn lives site and two of the much sought after Flynn's Arcade tokens. Pics can be seen here!

Once the codes were entered on the Zerohour website a previously blank square revealed a mini 80s Tron card. Flipping the card revealed that each square was part of a larger Tron image. Once all the codes had been entered and the full image revealed.

More importantly the image was now hotlinked to >www.pitcell.com where it was revealed that an EXCLUSIVE LIMITED EVENT would take place at the IMAX in New York, Los Angeles London, Toronto and Sydney. What we know is that an event is taking place at the London IMAX on Saturday 27 February 1:30pm. Rumours are that it is a short preview of Tron Legacy, the first showing of the trailer maybe a Flynn's arcade re-creation. Tickets are to be available at 9:00pm London time.

The IMAX schedule has not been disrupted and an Avatar screening starts at 2:30pm so any screening would be short and all over within an hour including arriving, collecting 3D Glasses and finding a seat.

What we don't know is what the 66 global operatives are going to be doing, the significance of the arcade tokens or the other cryptic puzzles on the site like the activated flashing gif on the Flynn Lives site, the significance of the numbers on the Tron cards, or even if all the puzzle parts have been identified yet.

Update 2 - 25 February:
All the tickets for all events are now gone and some further developments have taken place.

The animated gif was blinking binary code, if you selected the corresponding numbers on the cards of the Zero Hour puzzle, the cards flipped over to reveal access to another web page - http://www.flynnlives.com/discussionforums/ an apparent forum run by friends, fans or employees of Kevin Flynn.

Searching the forum reveals the following links:

Partially encrypted diagrams of a futuristic lightcycle.
- http://qm6k3pshu8rr302kv6xej8p72s.net/default.htm
- http://n8xd93f2rk077px1n6wdq839m0.net/

A making of video for the 3D bit and byte models sent out to US Bloggers
- http://www.flynnlives.com/discussionforums/printerVideo.htm

The number of possible clues and puzzles is melting my mind.

Update 3 - 25 February:
Just found out this Encom site was found.
http://encominternational.com/

Update 4 - 26 February:
This webpage was found on the Flynn Lives site.
http://www.flynnlives.com/derez/

Looks like 5 sets of codes are needed. 5 IMAX events, 5 Codes? If you are going to the event s keep a look out for any clues.

Tron Legacy Viral Event
When
4:00pm, Wednesday 23 Feb, 2010

Where
Imax
1 Charlie Chaplin Walk, London SE1 8XR

When
1:30pm, Saturday 26 Feb, 2010

Tron: Legacy Soundtrack

Since the Tron Flynn's Arcade event at Comic Con (San Diego) a number of tracks have appeared online billing themselves as Daft Punk tracks from the Tron Legacy soundtrack.

Speculation is that the track played during the Light Cycle reveal is a Daft Punk track and that it is part of the Tron: Legacy soundtrack. The track stars at about 0:16 of the clip taken at the Flynn's Arcade event.

Since then a number of tracks have appeared online perpetrating to be the Daft Punk song or a remixed version of the song. Here are 3 of the best.

Daft Punk - The Crash (Tron Legacy Soundtrack)
This track does sound a lot like Daft Punk, mashed with Akira and cut with Pilotpriest's "Body Double".

Daft Punk - Tron Legacy Theme (Reworked by Cryda Luv)
This track defnitley makes use of the track that was used at Flynn's Arcade and you can hear signature Daft Punk beats.

Daft Punk - Tron Legacy Theme (Basic Slack Midnight Cheap Mix)
This track sounds and looks like it was cut to beat match the Tron VFX footage and it samples classic Daft Punk

These are keeping my anticipation levels high and I can't wait for the real Soundtrack.

Tron: Legacy Soundtrack

Awesome Sweded Tron clip

Sweded - The summarized recreation of popular pop-culture films using limited budgets and a camcorder. The process is called sweding. Upon completion the film has been Sweded.

Origins: In the Michel Gondry film BE KIND REWIND, the character Jerry accidentally erases the videotapes at Mos Def's rental store, and the pair remake all the movies themselves. These versions become popular with customers, who are told they take longer to arrive and cost more because they come from Sweden. Hence, the films are referred to as 'Sweded'.

Made by freres-hueon. The original can be found here: http://www.dailymotion.com/user/freres-hueon - Tron by freres-hueon

Awesome Sweded Tron clip

TRON 2.0 is coming

Disney debuts the teaser trailer for TR2N at Comic-Con 08.

As always the trailer was captured by a fan on his mobile phone. The below version was further cleaned up by another fan to give us an almost watchable version.

From "http://tron2trailer.blogspot.com/" comes a breakdown of the full teaser trailer:

- The Disney logo appears and quickly seems to get digitized.

- We pan over ominous clouds into a digital city landscape only to find a man in a updated “Tron” costume. He’s on the run.

- The man jumps into a brand new 2008 version of the familiar light cycle.

- And a huge chase ensues with a pursuer in a dark mask after our racer. Unlike cycle races of old this one goes up and down AND side to side.

- The chased man is vanquished, crashing horrible. As the pursuer gets off his cycle he pulls a familiar disc from his back. The winner looks up to a previously unseen observer.

- And the observer is…Jeff Bridges! An older (and now evil) Flynn?!? He rises from a meditative state in his watchtower to see the pursuer do his bidding.

- The vanquished man pleads to his pursuer. “It’s just a game!” And then the final big reveal: the pursuer takes off his helmet and he is also Bridges, a seemingly younger Bridges!

Yes! It seems that both Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleiter are reprising their roles from the original.