Jeff Bridges is going back to the grid.
The 74-year-old actor told the Film Comment podcast (via The Playlist) that he is going to appear in “Tron: Ares,” the third film in the long-running sci-fi franchise that Bridges inaugurated with “Tron” in 1982 and reprised with “Tron: Legacy” in 2010. The new film stars Jared Leto as the titular character Ares, with Joachim Rønning (“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”) directing from a script by Jesse Wigutow and Jack Thorne.
“I’m heading off this Saturday to play a part in the third installment of the ‘Tron’ story,” Bridges said. “Jared Leto is the star of this third one. I’m really anxious to work with him. I’ve admired his work.”
“Tron” is best known for pioneering the use of computer generated imagery, which was used to create the digital world of a video game after Bridges’ character, Kevin Flynn, is zapped inside one. In the sequel, Flynn is trapped inside a much more sophisticated version of the game by his digital double Clu, who was also played by Bridges and digitally de-aged using CGI.
©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection
“I didn’t like the way I looked in it,” Bridges said. “I felt like I looked more like Bill Maher than myself. It was kind of bizarre.”
“Tron: Ares” costars Evan Peters, Greta Lee, Gillian Anderson, Jodie Turner-Smith and Hasan Minhaj.
More to come.