Steven Lisberger | |
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 Steven Lisberger at the 2010 Comic Con in San Diego | |
| Born | Steven M. Lisberger April 24, 1951 New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Tufts University |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1973–present |
| Known for | Tron |
| Spouse | Peggy Flook Lisberger |
| Children | 1 |
Steven M. Lisberger (born April 24, 1951) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for writing and directing the 1982 film Tron .
Lisberger was born in 1951 in New York City and grew up in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Of his ethnic background, he said that his father was Jewish while his mother's side was half Jewish and half Christian, both native German. Lisberger attended The Hill School in Pottstown and Tufts University. He went on to become a 1974 graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts.[ citation needed ]
While attending Tufts University, Lisberger and five associates formed Lisberger Studios. Their first project of note was Cosmic Cartoon, which earned a Student Academy Award nomination in 1973. It was also featured in the nationally-released anthology film, Fantastic Animation Festival, in 1977. Through his company, Lisberger Studios, Lisberger directed the production of commercials, title sequences, and feature segments for programs, such as Make a Wish and Rebop .
In 1978, after moving to Venice, California, Lisberger and his business partner Donald Kushner conceived and produced a 90-minute animated film, Animalympics , for NBC's coverage of the 1980 Olympics. They then turned their creative efforts to the development of Tron at The Walt Disney Company. It was released in 1982 and has since become a cult classic. [1] [2]
His film Hot Pursuit (1987) features one of Ben Stiller's first speaking roles.
In 1989, Lisberger directed Slipstream , though the film was a critical and commercial failure.
Lisberger spent most of the 1990s and 2000s writing screenplays, with several being optioned by various studios.
In 2007, it was announced that he and Jessica Chobot were working together on a film project called Soul Code, though it was never produced. [3]
Lisberger tried for years to convince Disney to develop a Tron sequel, though the project frequently languished in development hell. Eventually, Disney green-lit Tron: Legacy , and it was released in 2010 for which Lisberger served as producer. [4] The film was a success at the box office and was followed by a television series, Tron: Uprising .
Lisberger and his wife, Peggy, live in Santa Monica, California and have a son named Carl. [5]
| Year | Film | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Cosmic Cartoon | Yes | No | No | Short film; also animator & art director |
| 1980 | Animalympics | Yes | Yes | Yes | Television film |
| 1982 | Tron | Yes | Yes | No | Also visual effects concepts |
| 1987 | Hot Pursuit | Yes | Yes | No | |
| 1989 | Slipstream | Yes | No | No | |
| 2010 | Tron: Legacy | No | No | Yes | Cameo as "Shaddix" |
| 2020 | Prop Culture | No | No | No | Himself, Episode: "Tron" |
| 2025 | Tron: Ares | No | No | Executive | Creative consultant |
Steven Allan Spielberg is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director in history. He is the recipient of many accolades, including three Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and four Directors Guild of America Awards, as well as the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1995, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2006, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2009 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Seven of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
Modern animation in the United States from 1987 to 2004 is widely referred to as the silver age of American animation. During this period, many large American entertainment companies reformed and reinvigorated their animation departments, following a dark age during the late 1950s to mid-1980s. During this time, the United States had a profound effect on global or worldwide animation.
Tron is a 1982 American science fiction action adventure film written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The film stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer and video game developer who is transported inside the software world of a mainframe computer where he interacts with programs in his attempt to escape; it also stars Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan, and Barnard Hughes. Tron, along with The Last Starfighter, has the distinction of being one of cinema's earliest films to use extensive computer-generated imagery (CGI).
Garrett John Hedlund is an American actor and musician. His films include Troy (2004), Friday Night Lights (2004), Four Brothers (2005), Eragon (2006), Death Sentence (2007), Tron: Legacy (2010), Country Strong (2010), On the Road (2012), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Unbroken (2014), Pan (2015), Mudbound (2017), Triple Frontier (2019), and The Marsh King's Daughter (2023).
Blue Sky Studios, Inc. was an American visual effects and computer animation studio based in Greenwich, Connecticut. It was founded on February 22, 1987 by Chris Wedge, Michael Ferraro, Carl Ludwig, Alison Brown, David Brown, and Eugene Troubetzkoy after their employer, MAGI, one of the visual effects studios behind Tron, shut down. Using its in-house rendering software, the studio created visual effects for commercials and films before dedicating itself to animated film production. It produced 13 feature films, the first being Ice Age, released in 2002 by 20th Century Fox, and the final one being Spies in Disguise, released in 2019.
Phillip Bradley Bird is an American director, producer, writer, animator, and voice actor. He has had a career spanning forty years in both animation and live-action.
Animalympics is a 1980 animated television film directed by Steven Lisberger and produced by Lisberger Studios for the NBC network. Originally commissioned as two separate specials, it spoofs the Summer and Winter Olympic Games and features the voices of Billy Crystal, Gilda Radner, Harry Shearer and Michael Fremer.
Jerry W. Rees is an American film director and animator, best known for the Emmy-nominated animated feature film The Brave Little Toaster (1987) and creating many of the visual effects for the cult classic Tron (1982).
Robert Ralph Minkoff is an American director, animator, and producer. He is best known for co-directing The Lion King, and live-action films including Stuart Little (1999), Stuart Little 2 (2002), The Haunted Mansion (2003), and The Forbidden Kingdom (2008). In recent decades, he returned to feature animation with Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) and Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (2022). His wife, Crystal Kung Minkoff, is a cast member on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
Sean Bailey is an American film and television producer. He served as president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production from 2010 to 2024.
Roger Allers is an American film director, screenwriter, animator, storyboard artist, and playwright. He is best known for co-directing Disney's The Lion King (1994), the highest-grossing traditionally animated film of all time, and for writing the Broadway adaptation of the same name. He also directed Sony Pictures Animation's first feature-length animated film, Open Season (2006) and the animated adaptation of The Prophet.
Edward Lawrence Kitsis is an American screenwriter and television producer, best known for his work with his writing partner Adam Horowitz on the popular ABC drama series Lost and Once Upon a Time.
Slipstream is a 1989 science fiction film directed by Steven Lisberger, who had previously directed the cult classic 1982 science fiction film Tron. It was produced by Gary Kurtz, best known for his collaboration with George Lucas on the first two Star Wars films and American Graffiti. Slipstream reunited Kurtz with his Star Wars lead Mark Hamill, who features alongside Bill Paxton, Bob Peck and Kitty Aldridge, with cameo appearances from Robbie Coltrane, Ben Kingsley and F. Murray Abraham.
Donald Kushner is an American producer who has worked with animation, live-action, and theater productions.
William Kroyer is an American director of animation and computer graphics commercials, short films, movie titles, and theatrical films. He and Jerry Rees were the main animators for the CGI sequences in Tron. He is currently the head of the Digital Arts department at Lawrence and Kristina Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University.
Tron: Legacy is a 2010 American science fiction action film directed by Joseph Kosinski from a screenplay by Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, based on a story by Horowitz, Kitsis, Brian Klugman, and Lee Sternthal. It serves as a sequel to Tron (1982), whose director Steven Lisberger returned to co-produce. The cast includes Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner reprising their roles as Kevin Flynn and Alan Bradley, respectively, as well as Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, James Frain, Beau Garrett, and Michael Sheen. The story follows Flynn's adult son Sam, who responds to a message from his long-lost father and is transported into a virtual reality called "the Grid", where Sam, his father, and the algorithm Quorra must stop the malevolent program Clu from invading the real world.
Joseph Kosinski is an American film director, best known for his computer graphics and computer-generated imagery (CGI) work, and for his work in action films. He made his directorial debut with the science fiction Tron: Legacy (2010), the sequel to the 1982 film Tron, and has since directed the science fiction Oblivion (2013), the biographical drama Only the Brave (2017), the action drama Top Gun: Maverick (2022), the sequel to the 1986 film Top Gun, and the psychological thriller Spiderhead (2022). His previous work has primarily been with CGI-related television commercials including the "Starry Night" commercial for Halo 3 and the award-winning "Mad World" commercial for Gears of War.
Tron is an American science fiction media franchise created by Steven Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. It began with the eponymous 1982 film. The original film portrays Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a genius computer programmer and video game developer who becomes transported inside a digital virtual reality known as "The Grid", where he interacts with programs in his quest to escape.
Tron: Legacy is the soundtrack album to the 2010 film of the same name, released by Walt Disney Records on December 3, 2010. It is the only film score by French music duo Daft Punk.
Tron: Ares is an upcoming American science fiction film to be produced by Walt Disney Pictures and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The sequel to Tron: Legacy (2010) and the third feature film overall in the Tron franchise, the film is directed by Joachim Rønning, with a screenplay by Jesse Wigutow and produced by Jared Leto, Justin Springer and Emma Ludbrook. The film stars Jared Leto, Evan Peters, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith, Cameron Monaghan, Sarah Desjardins and Gillian Anderson.
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