Should the streamer win the bidding war for the famed anime series’ movie adaptation, ‘Red Notice’ filmmaker Rawson Marshall Thurber is reportedly ready to direct.
Amazon Studios is in negotiations to acquire a live-action feature adaptation of the famed 1980s anime Voltron, Deadline reports.
Rawson Marshall Thurber, director of Red Notice, is attached to direct the film, as well as co-write the screenplay with Ellen Shanman from a story he wrote. Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman will produce alongside Bob Koplar -- head of World Events Productions, which controls the Voltron IP.
The rights to the film have garnered significant interest and a number of offers from studios and streaming platforms since March. Although Netflix hosted the premiere of the last season of Voltron: Legendary Defender and also has 12 episodes of the original series in its library, the streaming giant has not been a part of the live-action project bidding war.
Based on the Japanese sci-fi shows Beast King GoLion and Kikou Kantai Dairugger XV, Voltron was edited and dubbed by World Events to package as a syndicated series, Voltron: Defender of the Universe. The show - which follows five pilots of vehicles that together form a super-robot called Voltron - garnered a sizable cult following during its run in the mid ’80s.
A number of attempts have been made over the years to adapt Voltron as a feature. New Regency, Relativity Media, and DreamWorks were among the companies that developed either live-action or animated projects based on the source material, but none of those projects came to fruition.
The Voltron franchise has spawned three TV series: 1998’s Voltron: The Third Dimension, 2011’s Voltron Force, and the aforementioned Legendary Defender, which Netflix debuted in 2016 with DreamWorks.
Max Weinstein is a writer and editor based in Los Angeles. He is the Editor-at-Large of 'Dread Central' and former Editorial Director of 'MovieMaker.' His work has been featured in 'Cineaste,' 'Fangoria,' 'Playboy,' 'Vice,' and 'The Week.'
