Writer/director Max Makowski, whose credits include independent films and TV shows, is in negotiations to direct Relativity Media’s big-screen version of the 1980s animated series Voltron: Defender of the Universe, according to Daily Variety. Despite his short resume, Makowski is becoming a go-to guy for bringing TV classics to multiplexes. He is currently adapting Kung Fu for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, and has written a film version of Hawaii Five-O for Warner Bros.
The Voltron script was written by Justin Marks, who is adapting He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and penning the Green Arrow movie, Supermax, for Warner Bros. He has also been tapped to script an adaptation of the Street Fighter video game for Hyde Park and 20th Century Fox. Marks’ Voltron treatment reportedly takes place in post-apocalyptic New York City and Mexico as five survivors of an alien invasion take control of lion-shaped robots in order to strike back at the extraterrestrial threat.
Ryan Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media is sewing up rights to the Voltron movie now that it is in turnaround at 20th Century Fox’s New Regency. The film’s budget is expected to get cut considerably by shooting against green screen and filling in the environments with digital effects a la 300 and Sin City. Like DreamWorks’ and Paramount’s blockbuster take on Transformers, the film will feature CG-animated giant robots interacting with human actors.
Mark Gordon and Jordan Wynn are still on board to produce the action-packed sci-fi thriller through The Mark Gordon Co., which recently produced Roland Emmerich’s tepidly received prehistoric action drama 10,000 B.C.
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