LOS ANGELES - The first feature that Joseph Kosinski directed - “Tron: Legacy” - is not exactly a cinematic baby step. A $170 million budget. State-of-the-art 3-D visual effects. A three-year marketing campaign. A line of related toys, clothes, jewelry and electronics. A spinoff TV show.

But as Mr. Kosinski showed “Tron: Legacy” to his cast for the first time, he was the epitome of calm. “As a director, if you know what you want, then it’s not scary,” he said. “I had a very clear idea of what I wanted ‘Tron: Legacy’ to look like.”

Raised in Marshalltown, Iowa - population 26,000 - Mr. Kosinski is quiet, polite, interested in other people’s opinions in a way that is rare in moviedom . The cool exterior seems designed to keep people out of his head.

“Tron: Legacy,” to be released worldwide starting December 15 and continuing into January, revisits sacred ground for sci-fi fans. The first “Tron,” released in 1982, was a box office disappointment, but its computer - generated effects and story line - a hacker is pulled inside a computer and forced to play space-age gladiator games - influenced a generation of techies. The basic challenge for “Tron: Legacy” is to be as cutting-edge as the original but accessible enough to attract mainstream moviegoers.

How did Mr. Kosinski convince Disney he was remotely qualified to shoulder this load? It all started back in 2007, when Sean Bailey, a Disney producer, was trying to figure out how to reinvent “Tron.” Hearing through the Hollywood grapevine about a director of commercials who had an unusual visual style, Mr. Bailey persuaded Disney to give Mr. Kosinski money to put together test footage.

Impressed at the outcome but still hesitant , Disney decided to show the footage at Comic-Con International, the annual multimedia geekfest in San Diego, California. The reaction was nuclear. Disney told Mr. Kosinski to proceed.

In many ways Mr. Kosinski had been preparing himself to create “Tron: Legacy” for years . He studied mechanical engineering at Stanford University in California, and spent a semester at Oxford University, where he focused on particle physics . A Stanford professor encouraged him to look at architecture, which led him to graduate school at Columbia University in New York. There he became proficient in digital design programs.

“I realized that I loved using computers to create something, but being an architect just wasn’t going to keep me interested,” Mr. Kosinski said.

In the back of his head was another person who initially studied architecture but realized it wasn’t for him: Michelangelo Antonioni, the Italian director of detached, dreamlike films like “L’Avventura” and “Blow-Up.” He went to Hollywood and one day got one of those classic show business breaks: a call from Anonymous Content, a management company specializing in commercials. Three days later he was sitting in a meeting with the director of “Alien,” David Fincher, an Anonymous partner.

“In my earliest look at Joe’s work I felt as though he had an immediate understanding of how to structure images,” Mr. Fincher said in an email message.

Noting Mr. Kosinski’s knack for using digital tools to visualize camera movement and staging, Mr. Fincher added, “He was someone whose skill set, I felt, represented precisely where directing was heading.”


By BROOKS BARNES