July 21, 2009 | by Rob Frappier 

‘Voltron’ Movie Set To Roar Into Theaters?

Voltron Movie

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 production team from Relativity Media, including Mark Gordon (Saving Private Ryan) and Jordan Wynn, did a lot of ground work on the project before losing it to Atlas. Relativity’s script, which was written by screenwriter Justin Marks, focused on “five survivors of an alien attack [who] band together and end up piloting the five lion-shaped robots that combine and form the massive sword-wielding Voltron that helps battle Earth’s invaders.” It is unclear at this time whether Atlas Entertainment will use the same premise for their version of Voltron.

It is also unclear who will distribute Voltron. It surely won’t be Paramount, who are still raking in mountains of money thanks to Transformers. And it won’t be Warner Brothers either, since they also have a 1980’s-inspired robot movie in production, Robo-Tech. The most likely candidate for distribution is Sony, who already shares a general contract with Atlas.

What do you think? Are you happy to see that Voltron will (hopefully) see the light of day? I, for one, was a much bigger Voltron fan than Transformers fan growing up, so I’m hoping Atlas can really put something worthwhile together.

Source: THR

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  • bazzom316
    I think it has been a long time coming for the kids of th 80s
  • Phil G
    Well, I for one would prefer a Voltron Hollywood movie treatment over Power Rangers, lol.
  • SpaceCowboy1701
    I think they'd do much better to stick closer to the original storyline on this one ... the whole alien invasion of Earth angle was going to be a hard sell for both fans and newcomers. Maybe that was how they were going to write out the whole magic/supernatural angle. Lots of potential there for a good show if they take the time to develop it properly ...

    Usually Gatchaman gets credited as being the prototype of the Super Sentai programs ... and that's actually the movie I'm more interested to see, even though I've read they've messed around with the basics on it as well and pushed it back to 2011.
  • Haggislaw
    @kyyle23

    I wouldnt bet on who inspired whom. After all the Power Rangers are the US Replica of japanese Super Sentai Shows (and please god let this be as far away from that stuff as possible) and Mechs are Anime culture since ...well forever.

    Getting a writer who truly understands anime or even better the manga will be hard.
    I'd trust James Cameron and his Battle Angel movie...but that's about as far as i go.

    Waht I try to say is more simple then I made it sound. Essentialy i'm just saying that until i see the movie my brain will always make this "Voltron = Power Ranger Zords" connection and honestly: Please let my brain be wrong here!
  • Bring us ThunderCats Movies\
    Its about time Love me some 80s cartoons...Thundercats needs to be done next and the He-man movie is being made cant wait for my childhood favorites to hit the Silver screen
  • hamlet3k
    Man, let's hope they scrap the Marks' script and write a completely new version. I read the treatment, synopsis, character arcs, etc. over at (I believe) Latino Review two years ago and... wow. It would suck. The "rag tag" team is your typical action movie multi-ethnic mix who somehow run across the alien plans and -- incredibly -- BUILD Voltron from existing earth machines in a subterranean garage. So, like, Voltron would still technically be the five lions version, but he'd have a helicoptor leg, but a helicopter shaped like a lion with tanks parts glued on here and there for funsies...

    Oh, and Pidge is a feral street kid -- did I forget to mention that? He's like an eleven year old, Japanese, knife-wielding, electronics genius sewer rat; one part Aladin, one part Savannah Nix, with a dash of The Goonies' Data.

    Can you trust Latino Review? I can't say. But if there's even a grain of truth to their script review, then Marks' story idea belongs over at cracked.com in an article titled "Michael Bay's Rejected Script for 'Voltron'" The pages of the "screenplay" would be covered in doodles of tits and explosions and everyone would have names like Slip Ramjaw and Duke Batterfist.
  • kyyle23
    @Haggislaw

    IIRC Voltron inspired Power Rangers, so I wouldnt worry too much. The only thing that would ruin this movie for me would be if Hollywood injected an inordinate amount of campy-ness into the script, which is completely possible.

    Personally I would like it if this movie script writing somehow ended up in the hands of a person who is very familiar with Manga and possibly directed by someone like Ang Lee, but we will probably end up with Orci writing and Somers directing.
  • AD
    ohh voltron !!! i cant wait for this , please give us all news about this movie .. thaaanks
  • Haggislaw
    @kyyle23
    dunno, but something about a human team controlling giant robo-animal-mechs who transform to one even bigger Bot (with Sword) battling aliens and alike just brings me WAY back in my Mighty Morphin Youth.

    I have to admit thou, i liked Voltron. Very much actualy and I even watched Power Rangers back in the days.
    I just can't imagine they could bring this to the big screen and make a half searious movie out of it. Then again I had my doubts about Transformers too =)
  • kyyle23
    @ Haggislaw

    How can you say it looks too Power Rangers already?
  • Matt Keith
    I love the show as a kid and would definitely want to see a live action film.
  • The Critic
    Voltron was a fav of mine as a kid and I'm glad it's getting the big screen treatment.
  • Here we have these platinum producers put together with the writer if Street Fighter the Legend of Chun Li. Come on some body. Tell the truth. You know exactly how this is going to turn out. And if it it does by some miracle astonish us, well I for one would be extremely surprised.

    I will say this. It should be taken as a serious film. So much can be done with it. What exactly?! I'm not telling. Ask Justin Marks. He's the writer. Oh!!! My bad. He's not telling either.
  • wait are we talking about

    Lion Force Voltron (Hyakujū Ō Golion)

    or

    Vehicle Force Voltron (Kikō Kantai Dairugger XV)

    Eather way...this looks waaay to Power Ranger to me =/
  • INK
    @Phil G

    That's what I'm hoping Robotech can be.

    It already has a better story and premise as source material than Transformers did.
  • Phil G
    I was a bigger Transformers fan than a Voltron fan, but I still used to have the complete Voltron toy as a kid. :P Still have one of the cats in fact, one of the legs, hah...

    Well, whatever. If the Voltron movie producers are smart, they'll see an opportunity to show that a robot movie can be done better than Michael Bay's Transformers movies.

    I don't think they can ever replicate Transformers' success simply because Transformers already satisfied people's desire to see robots on the silver screen, though.

    So that's all they really have at this point, just make a better story.
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