The chances of “Superman” and “The Witcher” actor Henry Cavill leading the charge for a potential hardcore “Warhammer 40K” series with Amazon MGM Studios may be dwindling by the day after his promising initial attachment, but it seems the charismatic star has found another sci-fi project to love.
As announced by The Hollywood Reporter last week, Cavill just inked a fresh deal with Amazon MGM Studios to headline a live-action “Voltron” movie based on the popular giant robot franchise. Rawson Marshall Thurber, who helmed the successful Netflix movie “Red Notice” and the 2018 feature “Skyscraper,” will direct this spirited adaptation, with cameras starting to roll in Australia sometime this autumn.
While no exact story details for “Voltron” have been released, the screenplay was penned by Thurber in collaboration with Ellen Shanman. Casting news is also sparse, but it seems that Cavill will join his up-and-coming co-star Daniel Quinn-Toye in this sci-fi spectacle. Quinn-Toye is a brilliant young performer who shared the West End stage with Tom Holland in “Romeo & Juliet” this past summer.
“Voltron: Legendary Defender,” Netflix’s reboot of the classic ’80s “Voltron” anime series, was produced by DreamWorks Animation and stomped forward into eight seasons and 75 episodes after its debut in 2016. It premiered as a hand-drawn/CG hybrid from Studio Mir based on 1984’s American show, “Voltron: Defender of the Universe,” which was inspired by a pair of Japanese anime series: 1981’s “Beast King GoLion” and 1982’s “Armored Fleet Dairugger XV.”
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These efforts centered around five teenagers, all transported from Earth during a chaotic intergalactic conflict, to train to become pilots for five robotic lions to protect the universe from evil. These five special paladins have the ability to connect together to form the towering Voltron mega-robot.
Produced by Todd Lieberman via Hidden Pictures, World Events Productions’ Bob Koplar, Thurber and Hobie Films’ David Hoberman, Amazon MGM Studios powers up its “Voltron” production sometime this fall.
