Live Action ‘Voltron’ Film in Development
Hot on the heels of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’s success at the box office comes the announcement that a new giant robot movie is pressing forward – Atlas Entertainment has just acquired the rights to make the 1980’s television series Voltron into a live-action feature film.
The film will be based on the Japanese anime series that ran in the US for two years during 1984 and 1985. It will follow five Transformers-like robot lions that combine to form one super robot lion. In the anime series a group of five pilots control them for the purpose of defending the planet Arus from King Zarkon and his evil Robobeats.
This could end up being a bigger movie than you might think. Some of the producers names that are attached to the project are connected with notables such as The Dark Knight, Wanted, Get Smart and The International.
The Voltron feature film hasn’t yet been set with a studio although Atlas apparently has a deal with Sony which could lead to Voltron becoming a new tentpole – something that I’m sure Sony will be thinking heavily about in light of Paramount’s recent success with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
One of Voltron’s producers, Ted Koplar, says Voltron will be set apart from Transformers.
“Unlike other robotic action movies, Voltron is the personification of the human spirit,” he said, “a quality that will set this movie apart.”
The Voltron movie has been in development for some time but at last new rights ownership will see it move forward. Prior to the rights acquisition the script was in the hands of Justin Marks (Street Fight: The Legend of Chun-Li and the upcoming 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea / Shadow of the Colossus). Marks based the story around an alien invasion of Earth and, judging by early reviews of his script, many people will hope Atlas move forward with Marks’ script. LatinoReview called the script “a #@%# masterpiece” and CinemaBlend called it “a well put together, well intentioned, incredibly faithful Voltron script using modern sensibilities.”
Voltron has been tentatively scheduled for a 2011 release.
May 12th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
I do hope that this anime is made into a live action film.I watched just about every Voltron episode through junior high to High school. I think they should stay with Justin Marks script.He seems to have a good angle on how these characters should be developed. “Form Legs and Body! and I’ll form the Head!”