The ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ director will pen the script alongside Simon Barrett, assuring audiences the film will not follow in the ill-fated footsteps of ‘Cats.’
Thunder, Thunder, Thunder! The tripindicular 1980s Rankin Bass animated series Thundercats has been revived twice on the small screen (most recently with 2020’s ThunderCats Roar), but a CG animated film adaptation has been prowling the Warner Bros. halls since at least 2007. Director Adam Wingard (Godzilla vs. Kong) has now taken the ill-fated film into his own claws and will pen a new script alongside Simon Barrett (You’re Next, The Guest).
According to Variety, “The underlying story is at once relatively simple — a team of humanoid cat-people (or cat-like humans) like Lion-O, Panthro, and Cheetara fight the evil wizard Mumm-Ra on the planet of Third Earth — and surprisingly complicated, with a mix of technological space sci-fi and swords-and-sorcery fantasy. There’s the mystical blade that holds the Eye of Thundera and the Ancient Spirits of Evil, and then antagonistic aliens like the Mutants of Plun-Darr and the Lunataks.”
For audiences still traumatized by the CG felines of Cats, Wingard assures that his CGI-approach to the visuals will embrace the “80s aesthetic” of the original series, rather than an uncanny valley nightmare-scape. “I want to do a movie you’ve never seen before: A hybrid CGI film that has a hyper-real look and somehow bridges the gap between cartoon and CGI. That’s the starting point.”
Thundercats the movie is in the early stages of development and currently has no official release date.
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