There are several things in Hollywood right now that are hot and popular topics: vampires, remakes, comic books and ROBOTS! As far back as I can remember, robots have always been popular in movies. Going back to the late 1940’s and early 1950’s when the science fiction boom really took off, robots were always involved in one form or another. Just quickly off the top of my brain I can think of “The Robot” from Lost in Space, Johnny 5 from Short Circuit, Mechagodzilla, of course Transformers and now Voltron.

Back in July we reported that Atlas Entertainment along with producers Charles Roven, Richard Suckle and Steve Alexander where teaming up to bring the robot quintet of Voltron to the screens everywhere. Then just like that *POOF*, no more information. Now last week, due to a new contract between United Talent Agency (UTA) and World Events Prods (and some pointing in the right direction by Film School Rejects), we find out that Atlas Entertainment is on the hunt for a new Voltron script writer in this press release:

According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter’s Risky Biz Blog, fan-favorite 80’s cartoon Voltron will finally go into film production thanks to Atlas Entertainment and producers Charles Roven, Richard Suckle and Steve Alexander. Atlas Entertainment acquired the rights to Voltron from St. Louis-based World Events Productions.

With the incredible success of Transformers and Transformers 2, I was beginning to wonder why Voltron was taking so long to the big screen. As we reported nearly a year ago, 20th Century Fox had the rights to Voltron, but dropped the film. Since that time, a number of production companies have vied for the rights to the feature, with Atlas coming out on top after Relativity Media could not get the project off the ground before their option expired.

The brains behind the sci-fi, super-hero and action figure-stuffed animated comedy Robot Chicken are taking a spin-off to Saturn’s biggest moon with Titan Maximum.

Co-head writer/producer Tom Root and co-creator/executive producer Matthew Senreich created the spin-off series, which pits a collection of dysfunctional heroes and their Voltron-style assembled robot (pronounced “RO-bet,” if you’re cool and from the 1950s) against a solar system-conquering villain and crippling budget cuts. The comedy adventure’s animation will resemble Chicken’s stop motion style.

I can’t believe that it’s now the end of August! Soon the winter blockbusters will be knocking at our door and the next thing you know it’ll be Oscar time again. Where does time go? Is it playing like a re-run somewhere, can you just flick to another dimension to a time where you are still awaiting a fourth Indiana Jones movie? Who knows, but I do know that it’s another Weekend Movie News Wrap up featuring a new aspect: a weekend box office update.

This week:

After our box office round-up we see what George Clooney and Jason Reitman are doing Up in the Air, we find out what former superhero is joining the Toy Story franchise, we look at who might be helming the Poltergeist movie and the Voltron film and what is new on the Inglorious Bastards casting front.

20th Century Fox recently axed its live-action adaptation of 80’s cartoon classic, Voltron: Defender Of The Universe, leaving many fans of the series worried that they’d never see their favorite lion-bodied robot hit the silver screen. Well, you can chillax Voltron fanboys: your holy grail of 80’s cartoons isn’t quite DOA yet.

Ok, ok… it’s been a while. No excuses, I’ll just give you the scoop on this week’s topics:

- Marvel’s Thor is moving forward.

- A remake of Enter the Dragon, that isn’t, really.

- Here comes another giant robot movie: Voltron.

- My thoughts on Stardust, which opened this weekend.

Ok, so according to /Film development on the Voltron film started back in 2004, but there hasn’t been much talk on moving the production forward until the runaway (and confusing, to me) success of Michael Bay’s Transformers movie.

So let’s prepare the internets for the same sort of battle we saw with Transformers – with long-time, die-hard fans of the character railing against the live action film version and those who will think the movie version looks awesome.