'Tron Legacy' skydives into San Francisco's WonderCon

Ever since the "Tron Legacy" teaser trailer debuted in front of "Alice in Wonderland" last month, buzz has been building for the long awaited sequel to 1982's groundbreaking CG adventure "Tron."  Walt Disney Studios kicked off a new phase of their long and intricate marketing campaign for the potential 3-D blockbuster with a staged event in San Francisco Friday night.

Under the guise of a product announcement for the fictional company Encom, original stars Bruce Boxleitner and Cindy Morgan appeared as their characters Alan Bradley and Lora before a throng of fans attending this weekend's WonderCon convention.  Boxleitner's speech -- in character -- contained many mentions of the "missing" Encom co-founder Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), but was primarily to give some publicity to the launch of the video game "Space Paranoids" online.  "Paranoids" was a "Space Invaders" knock off that was an integral part of the first "Tron."  After what seemed to be an unintentional delay in the show, a number of "protesters" holding "Flynn Lives" signs took to the stage to denounce Encom and insist that the video game pioneer was still alive.  Following that brief outburst, a helicopter swooped in over the crowd.  The chopper was adorned with a glowing Encom logo in the style of the original "Tron."  On a second pass, the copter ascended up in the air and a jumper parachuted to the surprised fans below.  Impressively, the jumper flew over the crowd and safely landed in the square, even in some incredibly blustery conditions.

You can view footage from the night's event embedded in this page for for a larger version click here.

This sort of event was no surprise for "Tron" fans.  Disney created a breathtaking re-creation of Flynn's Arcade from the first film as a showcase for a life-size model of "Legacy's" new light cycle during Comic-Con 2009.  It's unclear how the studio can top both events at this summer's annual mega event.  Happily, conditions should be much warmer for whatever will transpire in San Diego this July.

Gregory Ellwood
Editor-in-Chief, Co-Founder

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With over a decade of experience in the movie industry, Ellwood survived working for two major studios and has written for Variety, MSN and the LA Times. A co-founder of HitFix, Ellwood spends his time relaxing hitting 3’s on the basketball court and following his beloved Clippers.