Live action Thundercats movie coming

[Raph's Girl]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117966320.html?categoryid=13&cs=1I

t's Thundercats, ho! at Warner Bros.

Studio has optioned a script by tyro scribe Paul Sopocy to turn the popular 1980s animated series and toy line into a live action feature.

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

Property 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.

Project was brought to Warner by Palek Patel, VP at Spring Creek. Dan Lin is overseeing the pic for Warners.

The Thundercats franchise began in 1983 and spawned several animated series, with the most recent airing on Cartoon Network, a toy line produced by LJN and comicbooks published by Marvel and DC imprints. Warner Bros. has owned the rights to the animated series since acquiring Telepictures Corp. in 1989.

Studio's recently been bitten by the nostalgia bug, pacting 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 comicbook "Teen Titans," a junior Justice League.

Weinstein most recently produced Warners' "Blood Diamond," and with HBO Films is prepping "Recount," based on the 2000 presidential election, with Sydney Pollack set to direct.

"Thundercats" is Sopocy's first studio script sale as a screenwriter. He's currently senior writer, print advertising, at Fox Broadcasting Co., and has previously penned short films including "Staring at the Sun," which was screened at the Sundance film fest in 2005.

Raph's Girl note: I could see Ron Pearlman as Lion-O :evilgrin:

[Duke]

I'm interested to see how this turns out. I've always been a fan of the Thundercats.

[Spitfire]

Let's make every crappy 80's cartoon into a movie huh? Did I not say this in the He-man topic "What's next Thunder Cats" Man I wish I kept my mouth shut. Hollywood has a sense of humor.

[Tinuvielsdreams]

oh man when I heard them talk about He-man I said to myself, Thundercats will be next...lol

[Drtooth]

The one reason I don't want to see this movie get made? the WB might ressurect those plans for that horrible cartoon remake of Thundercats from 2 years ago.

[Brodie]

Let's make every crappy 80's cartoon into a movie huh? Did I not say this in the He-man topic "What's next Thunder Cats" Man I wish I kept my mouth shut. Hollywood has a sense of humor.

I like your use of punctuation.


Transformers will be amazing....Fuggin robutts.

[ZariusTwo]

Thundercats is'nt "crappy", so I'm fine with this. What I'm worried about is that they'll star making trilogies out of Penny Crayon and The Family Ness

Transformers will suck...and I miss you

[RaphistheBest]

Thundercats is one of my most favorite cartoons. I have almost the entire series on DVD. But I'm not use how I feel about this. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

[VaughnMichael]

Thundercats is'nt "crappy", so I'm fine with this. What I'm worried about is that they'll star making trilogies out of Penny Crayon and The Family Ness

Transformers will suck...and I miss you
ahaha I love Thundercats as well it's what I was into before TMNT came along and knocked it on it's animated @ss.
Anyways I can't say I'm worried about it but we will all just have to wait and see.
And I agree when I saw the full trailer for the new transformers movie I think I rolled my eyes maybe a good 5 times I really have no enthusiasm to see this movie at all.
I just think it's the designs personally that look odd way to pointy and demonic for my tatses.
It looks like Todd McFarlene designed this movie honestly.
Oh well can't win em' all.

[Drtooth]

Thundercats is'nt "crappy", so I'm fine with this. What I'm worried about is that they'll star making trilogies out of Penny Crayon and The Family Ness

I really did enjoy Thundrecats back in the day... but i haven't seen them in years. And the DVD's are so expensive. However, a movie.... that's just wrong. I mean, if they did it entirely in CGI (ala the Turtles) there could be potential, but the human live actors will look like crap.

BTW, what is Penny Crayon? I'm thinking either of Penny from Inspector Gadget or Crayon Shinchan hearing that name.

[gobo]

With all the crappy ideas for a revamp of this franchise, I have to say I'm skeptical and cautious of how bad this could be. I loved Thundercats back in the day. After "MUMM-RA LIVES!", my local syndication-provider didn't show too many more. I saw most of Season 2 for the first time on Cartoon Network. I nearly wet myself with excitement when I saw the commercial advertising it.

Now that I've seen all of the second season, I have to assume that's where they destroyed the show. It was so lame, and the Lunattacks (or however it's spelled) were the main culprit. I thought they were lame characters back then, and they actually were for all 60 eps that they existed in. I just hope they will be used as a prime example of what not to do in the movie. You know, "if done right" and all... But, it's still not worth possibly screwing up the franchise yet again. But, with a Weinstein attached to the project, I have to assume this might turn out well.

Pardon me while I go research the author now. :)

[ZariusTwo]

BTW, what is Penny Crayon? I'm thinking either of Penny from Inspector Gadget or Crayon Shinchan hearing that name.

Penny Crayon was a pre-school cartoon in the UK with the voice of britush comedian Su Pollar, she essentially brought drawings to life with a magic crayon.

I meant that purely as a sarcastic post, though I would'nt complain if they brought it back actually...

Superted though, I definatly want to see as a movie.

Thundercats season two LAME? On the contrary, the second season was where the show got better. Yeah, new characters and the fact they dedicated a whole five episodes to "Thundercubs" were big cons, but the show actually had closure, few 1980s series had that.

[Mandi-chan]

I never saw much of this show, didn't like it too much when I was younger (something to do with it stealing Sailor Moon's time slot at some point).

Now that I'm older, and have a better appreciation for older toons, I wish I could have a chance to see it again (It's on dvd now, right? Perhaps I could rent it...).

I'm curious to see how loyal this movie will be, and would love to see how they pull off the cat humanoids!

[Duke]

I also think the second season of Thundercats was an improvement over the first. The show had a great continuity, which is one of the things I enjoyed most about it.

[gobo]

Superted though, I definatly want to see as a movie.
They oughtta be getting to that eventually. Disney loves remaking their past successes a million times over. Unfortunately, I fear they'd make Lindsey Lohan Mother Nature and have her in every other damn scene... So, it could be a curse rather than a blessing unless you submit your screenplay before someone with less integrity takes a cue from your post.
Thundercats season two LAME? On the contrary, the second season was where the show got better. Yeah, new characters and the fact they dedicated a whole five episodes to "Thundercubs" were big cons, but the show actually had closure, few 1980s series had that.
Well, the closure it had was pretty weak, IMO. They went to live on New Thundera, but that wasn't necessary. Mumm-Ra followed them to New Thundera, but they didn't even defeat him. Lion-O bested him, but then it looked as if there was a possibility that he still could have tricked Lion-O into letting him go free off-camera. It just wasn't satisfying for me. But, I can't see the second season as anything other than an attempt to fix what wasn't broken. I liked the new 'cats. The Luna-creatures were hardly as interesting as the Mutants as far as villains go. BTW, where did Vulture-Man come from? I always wondered that.

[ZariusTwo]

They oughtta be getting to that eventually. Disney loves remaking their past successes a million times over. Unfortunately, I fear they'd make Lindsey Lohan Mother Nature and have her in every other damn scene..

Disney had nothing to do with Superted, Superted was developed in Wales and aired in the UK first. However, when it came to the US version Hannah Barbera produced the rare "Further Adventures of Super-Ted" series.


It just wasn't satisfying for me. But, I can't see the second season as anything other than an attempt to fix what wasn't broken.

You mean you saw season two as a toy commercial, which is what the new characters were designed to do, sell toys, but they were worked into the mythology so it did'nt look blatant.

[VaughnMichael]

Superted though, I definatly want to see as a movie.
SUPERTED IS AMAZING!8)

[Scandia]

That would absolutely ROCK!!!

I have not watched the Masters of the Universe live action movie, though.

What I would do anything for is to see a Captain Planet movie. Especially one that gives a conclusion to the series.

[ZariusTwo]

That would absolutely ROCK!!!

I have not watched the Masters of the Universe live action movie, though.

What I would do anything for is to see a Captain Planet movie. Especially one that gives a conclusion to the series.

CP's DIC seasons had about two conclusions, though not aired as finales, "Mission to Save Earth" and "Summit To Save Earth" were very much designed as ones, and were certaingly a lot better than the non-finales we later got in other seasons.

[Scandia]

I mean a conclusion to the series. What happened to the Planeteers.

Anyhow, someone today on the newspaper was complaining about "messing with our childhood legends". Personally, I think that having new Thundercats/Transformers/TMNT/Voltron movies ROCKS. As long as the plots are good and the substance and style are of quality, I have no complaints. I will only find the movies to be a bad idea if they have lousy plots.

[ZariusTwo]

Nobody listens to prevaliant "we want continuity" nerds when it comes to big screen outings to old cartoons. I'd rather have a reboot. The Planeteers did'nt get developed beyond Wheeler and Linka's relationship anyway.

[Voltron]

I mean a conclusion to the series. What happened to the Planeteers.

Anyhow, someone today on the newspaper was complaining about "messing with our childhood legends". Personally, I think that having new Thundercats/Transformers/TMNT/Voltron movies ROCKS. As long as the plots are good and the substance and style are of quality, I have no complaints. I will only find the movies to be a bad idea if they have lousy plots.

Wheeler had become a contract arsonist. He had worked mostly for Mafia Families until he was drafted by the government and sent into the dense forests of Russia. There, he was axed by an ex-KGB operative who is only known by her code name: "Ice Sickle."

Quami had become a hard core gangsta rapper known as "Hard Roq," only to be gunned down by Wheeler after Quami refused to pay a loan back to a Antonio D'Angelis, Don of the D'Angelis family of Chicago.

Linka, like many Russian immigrants, was sucked into a the lucrative US porn industry. Gi gained 100 pounds and now runs a pool store, and Ma-ti burned in that forest fire he was shown in during the opening credits. Ironically, that fire was also started by Wheeler, who had been sent down to South America to burn down hundreds of acres of rain forest in retaliation to a Brazilian mob trying to infringe on mafia turf.


Captain Planet finally came out of the closet, opened a fashion store in Paris, and is currently rumored to be going out with the Steel Spider.

Gaia had gotten a sex change operation. Before the operation, her publicist commented that Gaia felt "She already had the square jaw, muscles, and deep voice, I might as well go for the whole shebang."

Just to give you closure.

Oh, and Hoggish Greedly died of diabetes.



On topic- I think this could be done well. I mean, the characters are deep enough to be cool, yet are able to all be introduced in full in about 10 minutes. I wonder who'll play Mumm-ra?

I bet Beasley from "Turner and Hooch" will play Ma-Mutt.

[RaphistheBest]

Wheeler had become a contract arsonist. He had worked mostly for Mafia Families until he was drafted by the government and sent into the dense forests of Russia. There, he was axed by an ex-KGB operative who is only known by her code name: "Ice Sickle."

Quami had become a hard core gangsta rapper known as "Hard Roq," only to be gunned down by Wheeler after Quami refused to pay a loan back to a Antonio D'Angelis, Don of the D'Angelis family of Chicago.

Linka, like many Russian immigrants, was sucked into a the lucrative US porn industry. Gi gained 100 pounds and now runs a pool store, and Ma-ti burned in that forest fire he was shown in during the opening credits. Ironically, that fire was also started by Wheeler, who had been sent down to South America to burn down hundreds of acres of rain forest in retaliation to a Brazilian mob trying to infringe on mafia turf.


Captain Planet finally came out of the closet, opened a fashion store in Paris, and is currently rumored to be going out with the Steel Spider.

Gaia had gotten a sex change operation. Before the operation, her publicist commented that Gaia felt "She already had the square jaw, muscles, and deep voice, I might as well go for the whole shebang."

Just to give you closure.

Oh, and Hoggish Greedly died of diabetes.

HAHAHAHAHA!!! That's soo funny!..... I really hated that show though.

In the second season of Thundercats I really liked the fact that there were new villians. I did miss the mutants though. One of my favorite episodes has Lion-O and Jackelman focused on and they talked a lot to each other. I like it because they had the same voice actor. I can just image the guy arguing with himself in the studio.:lol:

[Drtooth]

Penny Crayon was a pre-school cartoon in the UK with the voice of britush comedian Su Pollar, she essentially brought drawings to life with a magic crayon..

Ah... I had a feeling it was British or European or on cable or something that I never heard of it or have seen it. Heck, I saw Danger Mouse and Count Duckula for the first time yesterday!

I really can't remeber much of Thundercats, other than me watching it when I was really young. But Someone said something about Disney making a movie, hypotetically. Do we REALLY want them back in the live action cartoon remake business again? Look what they did to Inspector Gadget, and worse... What they did to Underdog (I also saw the trailer for that yesterday too)! If they were to remake superTed, they'd probably make him a real bear too.

I wonder if Snerf is gonna ba a CGI character or a cat in some weird safe costume.

[Scandia]

Well I loved the live action Inspector Gadget movie.

Yay for Snarf. He was cool. I think a puppet or CG would be fine.

And I wonder if Captain Planet is one of those "love it or hate it" things. And I love it, hehehe. I even wrote an article about it for my library's Teen Blog for Earth Day. A colleague told me that her son LOVED Captain Planet when it aired.

[Spike Spiegel]

ThunderCats.....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO!


I hope this film doen't suck...

[RaphistheBest]

Yay for Snarf. He was cool. I think a puppet or CG would be fine.

Damn straight Snarf was cool. So was Snarfer. I guess a puppet would be okay if this movie ended up being live action and not CG. Although I would perfer CG over live action because I don't think that any amount of makeup and such would be able to pull it together well.

[Raph's Girl]

I mean a conclusion to the series. What happened to the Planeteers.

From wikipedia:
A script, by Michael Reaves, was written for a film adaptation called Planet based on the series. It was darker than the series, and was set in a post-apocalyptic time period. The script was met with acceptance, but "got lost in the shuffle when Turner and Warner Bros. merged."

[ZariusTwo]

WAnd I wonder if Captain Planet is one of those "love it or hate it" things. And I love it, hehehe. I even wrote an article about it for my library's Teen Blog for Earth Day. A colleague told me that her son LOVED Captain Planet when it aired.

Captain Planet was one of the most politically-sensetive shows ever developed, it is something that fundimentaly, may never be renewed again, not unless a liberal congress won the white house. Heck, even some liberals were offended by the show alongside the righties.

As noted, Reeves (who was one of the top writers on the second and third seasons of the original TMNT) wrote a darker script for Planet, but it fell through

Watch "If this is doomsday, it must be Belfast", the infamous episode stereotyped Northern Ireland's Catholoic/Protestant cival wars and got the whole thing wrong, it's hysterical

And it's about time somebody else admitted the Gadget movie was'nt as bad as people make it out to be. It does a lot wrong, but at the same time, the humour of the series is very prevaliant.

[Drtooth]

I think the problem with the Gadget movie is they really should have watched the cartoon more carefully. I could have accepted everything else, if they at LEAST got the name of the City right... Metro City.

I did like it the first time I saw it, and I think the second film was closer, but all and all, I felt it was miscast! Had the boss from the American The Office been a star at that time he could have been gadget 9though he is a bit short). They decided to cast him in a Get Smart movie (if that ever gets made) recently, in fact. Even Tony Shalub would have been good. Mathew Brodderick seemed like he didn't want to be there. And I really think Brain should have been CGI, even if they had to make him a real dog.
I think French Stewart got it right. Mathew made him a lovable goof, and he didn't have the oblivious arrogance that made the character work. plus, did they really need to go on that pointless garbage about Dr. Colaw being fat when he was younger? Didn't find it funny.

At least they both had the REAL Inspector Gadget theme song, and even DIC didn't get it right with the animated films.

personally, I would give Underdog a chance, but there's too many other films I would rather see, and I haven't even seen Spiderman yet.

Anyway, maybe if this is a reboot, it could be a good thing. But only if they do it right.

Hey, maybe we can have cartoon based Thundercats action figures. Look on the bright side. No matter how bad these films are, we have the mercahndise to look forward too.

[ZariusTwo]

At least they both had the REAL Inspector Gadget theme song, and even DIC didn't get it right with the animated films..

DIC I thought would never get Gadget right again after they revived their animated franchises with the Maurice Lemarch movies, considering they've produced some real hack-worthy material since losing their original animators and using more flash-oriented styles.

But they still did'nt get the theme song right, but they thankfully restored Gadget and Penny to their original looks for the Mainframe film that killed the franchise completly.

[CudleyCowlick]

WA-HOO!!! THUNDERCATS... HOOOO!!!!

[Raven]

I've never been a big fan of the show but this could be a really good movie. My only thought on this is how will they present the thundercats? Will they go like the first Ninja Turtles movie and have actors in suits or will they be CGI characters interacting with live people?

[Scandia]

Personally, I would prefer 2D animation- whether with cels or CG.

On the other hand, for Captain Planet I WANT live action.

[DrSpengler]

Live action Thundercats seems very difficult to do right. Bad costumes and the whole thing can wind up looking like a bad furry convention.

Still, Love me some Thundercats. I was depressed when Wildstorm cancelled the comic (though it had been getting progressively worse, admittedly). I just want more Thundercats stuff.

EDIT:

According to Variety (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117966576.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&query=thundercats) and, uh, Variety (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117966320.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&query=thundercats), the movie is going to be CGI and not live action.

[gobo]

SWISH!! :D :D

Now, if only they can just avoid that floaty mo-crap CGI...

[RaphistheBest]

Hooray! No live action! Me happy Thundercat lover!:D

[Time Mistress]

I used to love ThunderCats. If it is going to be CGI any hope Imagi might be involved?

[Drtooth]

CGi, if done correctly like the current TMNT film, would be the best bet. I mean, half the characters would HAVE to be CGI anyway. And the humans would look goofy in the suits, making it slightly campy when they don't want it to be.

[RaphistheBest]

I can't even imagine how bad the people would look in suits. I mean, just to pull it off well there would have to be CG. The farthest I've gone in thinking of how the suits would turn out is Lion-O *shudders* and then I can't do it any more.

[DrSpengler]

I give you... Tigra!

http://www.heroldsupply.com/furry.jpg

*shudder*

[Kendamu]

I can't even imagine how bad the people would look in suits. I mean, just to pull it off well there would have to be CG. The farthest I've gone in thinking of how the suits would turn out is Lion-O *shudders* and then I can't do it any more.
Here ya go:

http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/costume_thundercats.jpg

[RaphistheBest]

I give you... Tigra!

http://www.heroldsupply.com/furry.jpg

*shudder*

Here ya go:

http://images.cosplay.com/photos/28/288691.jpg

and

http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/costume_thundercats.jpg

*continuous sobbing*

[Drtooth]

Here ya go:

http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/costume_thundercats.jpg


Uh... I guess after the series ended, he had to get an office job, huh?

[RaphistheBest]

Uh... I guess after the series ended, he had to get an office job, huh?

:lol: :lol: :lol: OH MY GOD!!! THAT WAS SOOO FUNNY!!! *snort!*

[Scandia]

That Lion-O is actually pretty good. The Tygra needs some modifications.