Voltron Scaled Back for Relativity

Published by Jeff Leins on: August 18th, 2008

New Regency, a company based at 20th Century Fox, has ditched the Voltron: Defender of the Universe movie, which is now being set up at Relativity Media with a “more moderate budget.”

Relativity is planning on using more “cost-effective” techniques to tell the post-apocalyptic story written by Justin Marks. When Latino Review read an early version of the script, they called it “a f*cking masterpiece.” The Variety article cites 300 (which stole from Sin City, by the way) as an example of using green screen technology to create a digital world rather than actually filming in the real one.

Insiders for the trade said New Regency never actually worked out the deal with Japanese rights holders for the 80s anime property. A deal is now being hashed out with Relativity Media, who usually goes with Lionsgate for distribution, but may seek a major studio for this release probably sometime in 2010.

They expect to be ready to announce a director next week.

Based on the positive early reviews of the Marks script, I was excited about the possibility of a cool giant robot movie (Transformers sucked, get over it). But a scaled back 300-esque version? I’m not sure how a huge, interlocking robot can be done with a $40-60 million budget. Let me rephrase that. I’m not sure how it can be done well.