Voltron Roars Onto Big Screen

the production team that put together Get Smart and the International have acquired the live action rights to Voltron. the acquisition comes after a long tug of war with world events Productions who had held the license for twenty years.

For those of you not in the know, “Voltron,” is the story of a team who uses five robot-lions combine to form one super robot. Together they defend the planet Arus from villain King Zarkon, who dispatches evil creatures called Robobeasts to fight the Voltron robots.

Mark Gordon, the producer of action-drama hits such as “The Patriot” and “Saving Private Ryan,” had been developing the project with indie producers James Young, Mark Costa and Ford Oelman. The group had made a number of inroads in the past few years, hiring writer wunderkind Justin Marks to pen a script (his draft centered on an alien invasion in an apocalyptic North America) and ensuring that a chain of title was clear. The group had also set up the project at New Regency.

Last year, the Fox-based banner put “Voltron” into turnaround, and Relativity Media came on to finance the film as part of its single-picture business. But with the option from World Events set to expire, Atlas had the opportunity to step in and acquire rights.

Rumors are that Voltron will end up at WB as a way to compete with the Transformers franchise, but the fact that they are already working on Robotech makes that a lot less likely.