Anime adaptations are slowly becoming popular in Hollywood, and it looks like Voltron is the next one open to get its very own film. Reported exclusively by The Hollywood Reporter, a live-action Voltron film is in the works from Red Notice‘s Rawson Marshall Thurber. Thurber is attached to direct, and will also co-write the screenplay with Ellen Shanman.
The project is currently in a heated bidding war with roughly seven studios and streamers in the running for the film. This includes Warner Brothers, Universal, and Amazon. It is important to note that Netflix does not seem to be in the running even though they released Thurber‘s last film Red Notice as well as the animated series Voltron: Legendary Defenders. At this time there is no real clue of where the film will land, but THR does say a deal could get done as early as this weekend.
On top of that, Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman will produce the project with Bob Koplar who is the head of World Events Productions. This is the company that currently controls the Voltron property. There are no details on what the plot could be about right now, but Voltron “is based on the Japanese sci-fi series Beast King GoLion and Kikou Kantai Dairugger XV. World Events edited and dubbed the series as a syndicated show, titling it Voltron: Defender of the Universe.” The original series ran in the mid 80s and the plot “centered on five young pilots in a battalion named the Robot Lions, which are vehicles that join together to form a mega robot known as Voltron.” You can see why many studios would be interested in this given that similar series like Transformers and Power Rangers have done very good business in the American market.
Also, since its debut, Voltron has maintained its pop culture relevance with its DVD sales being in the hundreds of thousands. It also helps that the series has seen a few reboots over the years including one on NickToons in 2011 and later on Netflix in 2016. Voltron has been one of those properties that has been in Hollywood development hell for years. As a live-action film, it has tried to get off the ground since the early 2000s. Studios like New Regency and Dreamworks have all tried, but every attempt has failed up to this point.
Red Notice released back in November and quickly became the biggest Netflix film of all time. Currently, Thurber is writing and planning to shoot back-to-back sequels for that successful spy thriller. Thurber has become a hot commodity fast and the director’s other credits include Skyscraper and the action-comedy Central Intelligence. His last three films have all starred Dwayne Johnson, so hopefully this means we have a chance to see Johnson pilot a Voltron. Whatever the case may be, Thurber is a good choice for a film like this given his action heavy background. We are likely to hear more information about this project once a studio does eventually get attached to Voltron.
via Collider