‘Thundercats’ Movie in the Works With Major Director

On the eve of Warner Bros. releasing Godzilla vs. Kong, director Adam Wingard has reportedly signed on to direct a film adaptation of ThunderCats, the beloved 1980s animated series, for the studio. Wingard has directed several horror movies, with Godzilla vs. Kong being the biggest project he tackled so far. This new job comes just a few weeks after Paramount picked Wingard to direct and co-write a Face/Off sequel.

The new ThunderCats movie was written by Rideback’s Dan Lin and Vertigo’s Roy Lee, who co-produced Wingard’s 2017 Netflix movie Death Note, reports Deadline. David Coggeshall (Scream: The TV Series) wrote an earlier draft. Wingard will work on a new draft with his frequent collaborator, Simon Barrett. The film will be a hybrid of CGI and animation. According to Deadline, the Thundercats movie will use the animated series as a “jumping-off point,” and then Wingard will take it in a new direction.

After the news broke, Deadline published an interview with Wingard, in which he called the ThunderCats movie a “dream project” for him. He was “obsessed” with the animated series in high school. He even wrote a ThunderCats screenplay in 10th grade that runs 272 pages long, he said.

“I want to do a ThunderCats film that takes you back to that ’80s aesthetic,” Wingard said. “I don’t want to reinvent the way they look; I want them to look like Thundercats. I don’t want to do it live-action, either. I don’t want it to look like Cats, I don’t want those kinds of issues — no disrespect to that director, whom I don’t mean to throw under the bus any more than everyone else has. 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, and Simon Barrett and I are getting into the script now.”

It’s not clear if Wingard will focus on ThunderCats or Face/Off 2 just yet. He told Deadline he would do “the next available thing, quickly” now that he’s done with Godzilla vs. Kong. He again stressed his interest in focusing Face/Off 2 on the original characters played by John Travolta and Castor Troy, not just on the 1997 film’s face-swapping gimmick.

The original ThunderCats was produced by Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment and debuted in 1985. The original series wrapped in 1985 with 130 episodes and was followed by the TV movie ThunderCats – Ho!. There have been several comic book series based on the show and a 2011 reboot series. Last year, Cartoon Network aired ThunderCats Roar, a series similar to Teen Titans Go!.

ThunderCats was created by the late Tobin “Ted” Wolf. The series tells the story of catlike humanoid aliens who had to flee their dying planet, Thundera, to live on Third Earth. The original ThunderCats characters included Jaga, Lion-O, Panthro, Tygra, Sheetara, WilyKit, WilyKat, and Snarf.