A live-action adaptation of Voltron, co-written and directed by Red Notice’s Rawson Marshall Thurber, has sparked a bidding war between studios and streamers, Deadline can confirm.
Thurber and Ellen Shanman wrote the screenplay, which was based on Shanman’s story. Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman will produce the film along with Bob Koplar, whose company World Events Productions controls the rights to Voltron. Warner Bros., Universal and Amazon are all competing for the package, but Netflix — home of Red Notice and 2016’s animated series Voltron: Legendary Defender — isn’t.
The Voltron franchise is based on several of Toei Animation’s Japanese anime series, including Beast King GoLion. It centers on a team of five space explorers who control a giant super robot of the same name. Voltron aired as an ABC series from 1984-1985, with additional iterations later set up on NBCUniversal, Nicktoons, and Netflix, as mentioned.
Thurber’s action comedy Red Notice, starring Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot, quickly topped the Netflix movie charts when it debuted in November 2021. The director has also previously helmed such films as Skyscraper, Central Intelligence, We’re the Millers and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and is executive producing and writing and directing the pilot for an upcoming Dungeons & Dragons series for eOne.
Whether Voltron will be the next project for Thurber, who also has several Red Notice sequels in development, remains unclear. It is used by WME and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; UTA’s Shanman, Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment and The Law Hut.