Thundercats movie???
 

This has been "in production" for years now. New scripts don't mean much these days. If it's another live-action flick, I'm not excited. I'd rather have an animated version with original voice cast or sound-alikes (for those no longer with us).

Warner Bros. and producer Joel Silver are working with Mattel to turn "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" into a live-action film, according to a May 23rd article in Daily Variety.

The franchise has been re-imagined by the producer and the writers and pitched to Mattel as a classic good vs. evil battle, using the kind of visual effects strategy employed in 300. A warrior is touted as the last hope of a magical land called Eternia, which is being ravaged by technology and the evil Skeletor.

Justin Marks, who has found a niche reimagining branded properties such as turning the animated series Voltron into a live-action film for producer Mark Gordon, developing a screen version of the videogame Street Fighter for Hyde Park, and scripting a feature for Warners based on DC Comics' character Green Arrow, is set to write the script, with Silver handling production. No director has been assigned yet.

The deal is contingent on Mattel formally approving an outline for the project. The toymaker, which now licenses "He-Man" for high-end merchandise sold to hardcore collectors, has been wary of going Hollywood again since the failure of the first attempt at a bigscreen adaptation, 1987's Masters of the Universe, starring Dolph Lungren. An attempt by Fox 2000 to make another movie, this time with director John Woo, ended in futility when Mattel didn't approve the production plans.

For Mattel, the stakes are potentially high as success could mean an entire relaunch of a toy line.

Source: Variety
June 6, 2007


Warner Bros. has optioned a Thundercats script by new screenwriter Paul Sopocy to turn the popular 1980s animated series and toy line into a live action feature.

Variety says Warner-based Paula Weinstein will produce through her Spring Creek Productions, along with Dick Robertson and Lew Korman.

Thundercats revolves around a group of humanoid cats (with feline names like Lion-O, Tygra, Panthro and Cheetara) who must flee their planet of Thundera after it's destroyed. Once crash-landing on another planet, Third Earth, they must thwart Mumm-Ra, an evil sorcerer, bent on killing them off.

Sopocy has written the script as an origin story expanding on the major heroes and villains from the animated series, with the plot focusing on Lion-O coming of age as the leader of the Thundercats.

Warner Bros. recently teamed with Joel Silver to produce a live-action He-Man movie, based on the toy and cartoon franchise, as well as a feature based on the DC comic book Teen Titans.