The Hollywood big screen adaptation of iconic 1980s television cartoon Voltron has been languishing in development hell for years. After several script drafts, the live-action movie version is heading back to square one.
The original Voltron cartoon was a mix-mash of two Japanese anime: Armored Fleet Dairugger XV and Beast King Go-Lion.
Mark Gordon, producer of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, began development on a feature film version of Voltron in 2005. Justin Marks, who recently wrote Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, was brought aboard to pen the screenplay, which was post-apocalyptic and set in New York City. It followed five survivors of an alien attack who pilot robot-shaped lions to protect the Earth.
That script has been scrapped.
Max Makowski, who write and directed crime flick One Last Dance, was slated to direct. He is apparently no longer attached to the project.
Instead, the movie is back at zero and pre-production is starting once again with World Event Productions, which did the Voltron cartoon, and Atlas Entertainment, the company behind Three Kings, Twelve Monkeys and the Scooby Doo and Get Smart movies. There has been concern, it seems, that young viewers would confuse Voltron with Transformers and/or Power Rangers, but WEP asserts that the live-action film will stand out. If and when it ever gets made!
Last December, Voltron was adapted into an iPhone game.
Exclusive: The latest about the Voltron movie and new animated TV series | Corona Coming Attractions [Coming Attractions via Latino Review]