Voltron Movie Reforms Again

Published by Jeff Leins on: July 20th, 2009

Atlas Entertainment has acquired the rights to Voltron and is planning a live-action adaptation of the property.  Producing are Charles Roven (The Dark Knight), Richard Suckle (The International), and Steve Alexander.  The partners purchased the rights for the Japanese anime after it rested at World Events Productions for over 20 years.

The 1980’s hit series features five robot lions that formed a massive robot called Voltron.  The pilots were constantly tasked with defending planets against the forces of Zarkon, including cyborgs known as “Robeasts.”  The popularity of Transformers brought the anime to the United States and will likely help the project become a feature film.

According to the Risky Business Blog, Atlas picked up the pieces after producer Mark Gordon brought Voltron to New Regency (an arm of 20th Century Fox) and then to Relativity Media.  The latter even attached a director (Max Makowski) and launched plans for a “cost-effective” approach, which would have used the green screen technology of 300 and Sin City.

Atlas hasn’t set it up at a studio yet, but it does have an overall deal with Sony.  Everyone’s looking for a rival to Paramount’s Transformers franchise, so the possibility of this getting made is high.  Warner Bros is already planning a Robotech movie with producer/actor Tobey Maguire.  World Events’ Ted Koplar said, “unlike other robotic action movies, ‘Voltron’ is the personification of the human spirit, a quality that will set this movie apart.”

There was no word on whether Atlas plans to use Justin Marks‘ script, which received high marks from reader reviews.  LatinoReview called it a “f*cking masterpeice” and CinemaBlend called it “incredibly faithful.”  The story was set in a post-apocalyptic world where an alien race has driven humans underground.  Five wanderers make their way from New York to Mexico in search of five keys that can start the robot fighting machines that form Voltron.