This sounds too crazy to be true, and probably is: the Vancouver Sun is reporting that “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.”
That’s led to a swarm of US-based regurgitations of the info, many of which seem to be neglecting to run the figure through a currency converter. A Canadian paper would report in Canadian dollars, yes, unless otherwise specified? $300m Canadian is $245m in US dollars. (The paper also gets the remake/sequel thing wrong — is that an easily understood mistake or suggestion that they’re wrong altogether?)
That’s still an idiotic amount of money to create what may be the largest blowjob ever given to nostalgic fans. Disney dropped $300m+ on the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Is Tron really big enough to justify a $250m production budget, much less $300m? Sadly, with the potential for merchandising and all manner of ancillary income, yeah. It could be. Chew on that while you polish off a bottle of whiskey tonight.
Via FilmDrunk, who managed to talk to the reporter and were told the number was ‘a reported figure’, which I believe translates from Canadian to English as ‘pulled out of someone’s ass’.