News
Proposed Live-Action Voltron Film Gets New Producers
posted on by Egan Loo
The Hollywood Reporter newspaper's Risky Business blog reports that Atlas Entertainment's Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, and Steve Alexander have acquired the live-action film rights to the Voltron animated series from World Event Productions (WEP) with Kickstart Entertainment's Jason Netter. WEP adapted the 1984-1985 television series from two Toei Animation robot anime: King of Beasts Golion (pictured at right) and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. Both Golion and the first Voltron story centered on young pilots who fight against an empire of alien conquerors — with the help of five mechanized lions that combine to form a robot.
The three Atlas producers worked on Get Smart and The International, and Roven also produced The Dark Knight. Roven was once a producer on the proposed live-action remake of Robotech — a 1985 television series that was also adapted from different robot anime — although he is no longer involved in the Robotech proposal as of February. Similarly, Netter (live-action Wanted film) was listed as a producer of the live-action Robotech proposal after producing both the Voltron: The Third Dimension and Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles sequels. Atlas has an overall deal with Warner Brothers, the same studio involved in the proposed Robotech project.
New Regency, a 20th Century Fox-based production company, once negotiated with WEP and the Mark Gordon Company for the live-action Voltron rights in 2007. However, New Regency never actually signed a deal, and other companies were allowed to negotiate for the rights. WEP said in a 2008 lawsuit that New Regency discovered that former Toei character designer Kazuo Nakamura "may possess rights" related to Golion and thus the first Voltron series.
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