With Tron: Legacy opening wide today, we thought we’d share a little-known Lucasfilm connection to one of the film’s characters recently revealed by director Joseph Kosinski in a visit to LFL’s Presidio headquarters. Rinzler, a character introduced early on as one of the film’s chief villains, was apparently named after Lucasfilm Executive Editor J.W. Rinzler, author of several books including The Making of Star Wars, The Complete Making of Indiana Jones, and the recent Making of The Empire Strikes Back, among others.
“Friends told me about the fact that there’s this character Rinzler in the new Tron movie,” says Rinzler. “So I went online to see if I could figure out where they got the name. But I couldn’t find anything. There aren’t many Rinzlers in the States and it’s not a name that means anything, as far as I know… Then when Joe Kosinski came as a guest speaker I was actually on my way to the event before I realized this might be a chance to ask him. So I waited till after the q-and-a, went down to the front, and said I had a strange question but had to ask where he got the name, or where the writers got the name. And he said that he was sitting with the two writers working, and there was a book on the table ‘a Making of’ he said… ‘Oh yeah, it was Making of Star Wars by someone named Rinzler.’ So I said ‘that’s me’, thanked him, shook his hand and said I had to go out and buy a few action figures — needless to say, my kids are thrilled.”
Check out the official Tron: Legacy website here.
Tags: Books and Comics, J. W. Rinzler
That’s just freakin’ awesome! I heard this thru twitter the other day and when I saw the movie today, I was exscited for him. LOL
That’s great! I’m glad to know this as well- it was something I’d wondered about when I first saw the action figures weeks ago.
Nice reward for a heckuva good author!
Great story I own most of J.W. Rinzler books and they are all great but I did’nt know Rinzler was connected to Tron. Very nice info.
Rinzler is a badass character and also very talented dude…but, when I clicked on this link I was expecting to read about how much the character resembled Darth Maul…
I thought it was Ray Park till the credits roled.
After seeing Tron Legacy last night, there seems to be loads of references to Star Wars. For example when Sam tries to use the lightbike ‘hilt’ as a lightsabre and when the pilot of the pursuing ships signals to the other, it’s exactly the same as the speeder bikes in Return of the Jedi.
I knew it! And incidentally, I’m reading and listening to J.W. Rinzler’s The Sounds of Star Wars right now. Funny thing, my wife thought it was a children’s book due to its heft — and because many children’s books are multimedia-enhanced. Us adults are missing out, more books deserve their own integrated soundtrack to make another sense come alive… for a more immersive experience.
Thanks for sharing this confirmation.
Just wanted to let J.W. know that there are Rinzler’s in Atlanta Ga. None of us are writers though so he has that one all to himself.
I was wondering where the name came from. Rinzler is, by far,my favorite character!
tron legacy is movie remake from old tron. this movie lighting very very awesome.
great story from J.W. Rinzler