The first location pic from Tron 2.0 has surfaced over at Twitpic, courtesy of poster "kfulljames", and you can check it out below. It's nothing terribly exciting, frankly, but it is our first glimpse of at least some activity, and now we have a location to pinpoint and recheck.

The shot below was taken from an office tower across from where the production was setting up for filming; sharp-eyed Vancouverites will recognize it as the corner of Georgia and Thurlow streets in downtown Vancouver.

Stage shooting for the film is taking place at the Canadian Motion Picture Park studio in south Burnaby.

Meanwhile, as to the story itself, a detailed plot synopsis has not been revealed, but Production Weekly described the basic story the following way:

"After being transported into the surreal landscape of a mainframe computer to destroy an intruder (Tron), a programmer finds himself allied with the leader of a rebellion against a corrupt cyber-entity."

In the first movie a programmer named Flynn (Jeff Bridges) was sucked inside a computer to be destroyed. It sounds as though the sequel will see the computer bringing a programmer inside to help defend it. Moreover, the test footage from Comic-Con last year hinted at the possibility that Jeff Bridges might be playing the bad guy, an evil computer entity.

The cast so far includes Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner and Beau Garrett. Karl Urban and John Hurt have also been rumored to appear in the film.

A report in the Vancouver Sun is suggesting that Tron 2.0, which has just begun production here in Vancouver, is budgeted at $300M dollars! That's a whopping sum if one stops to consider British Columbia's film and labor tax credits...and a 20% difference between the US and CDN dollar. Even if that figure is in adjusted CDN dollars, it's still a walloping sum for such a niche sci-fi film; a sequel to boot.

If true, that would tie the new Tron movie with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End as the most expensive movie every made.

We're not quite sure what's going on here, or where all that money will go (we hear craft services in town are charging more these days, but c'mon...), but with only three producers officially attached, it's not as though the film is above-the-line top heavy.

Here's the full report...
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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.

The 1982 version of the film starring Jeff Bridges blazed new trails in computer graphics and you can bet Tron 2.0 will push much further down the pixel path.

Garrett Hedlund (Eragon, Troy) and Olivia Wilde (House, The OC) have been cast in lead roles. Bridges is also reportedly appearing in the new film along with original Tron alumnus Bruce Boxleitner.

Disney has set up offices in town and shooting should get underway this spring.

We'll stay on top of this and see if we can determine whether the budget is accurate (in which case we'll seek clarification as to why it's so high), or if the Vancouver Sun is stooping to the level of rumor-mongering...something we certainly would never do.