Greetings, and welcome to the I/O Tower: a podcast for all things TRON. I'm your host, David Fleming. As listeners of this podcast know, over the last 4 years I've had the honor of talking with many of TRON's creators, about their experiences on the Disney lot, friendships formed, skills learned and techniques discovered in creating a once-in-a-lifetime film. In 1982, this young crew of filmmakers rendered a look, a story about computers, video games, and our relationship to emerging technology that, truly, no other film since has accomplished. TRON inspired so many up and coming artists - musicians, television producers, and those in the nascent field of digital media. One only need reflect on TRON-inspired art of the past 40 years to see how TRON found its way into the hearts and minds of countless creators. I consider myself to be among them. Much has transpired in the microcycles of the past four decades, and not all of it good. Sadly, we've lost many of TRON's cast and crew. In the past 3 years alone, David Warner, who portrayed Dillinger/Sark, and Cindy Morgan, our beloved Lora/Yori. We also lost Raulette Woods, film cel coordinator, and most recently, animation camera operator Glenn Campbell. I wish I could've talked with each of them on this podcast. But I am humbled and honored to say that I did get to meet and hang out with Cindy, Raulette, and Glenn, and each of them were just the greatest people, so kind and encouraging to be with. Time marches on, and technology advances. From the standpoint of 1982, it would've been hard to foresee where we've gotten today. It feels we are nearly at a point where TRON might be, well, real. Want to go inside the computer? A VR headset makes this easy now. Want the programs to come outside to us? Alexa, Siri, ChatGPT, all getting more lifelike all the time. In today's episode, I want to revisit TRON. How did the idea of it all, ahead of its time, come to be? What does TRON mean today, in a world full of social media and tracking algorithms? Who or what are the users and programs now? And who is fighting for whom? Did TRON's young director, Steven Lisberger, know where all of this might go? I think maybe he did, as evidenced in "Topeka", a thrilling new sci-fi novel cowritten by him and Robert Churchill. My fellow conscripts, we have scored! Today's guest is TRON's writer and director himself, Steven Lisberger. Let's ask him all of this and, oh, TRON: Ares? Do tell! Welcome to the I/O Tower. END OF LINE
