As Adam Wingard’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is having a strong run at the box office, the director is talking about his new feature film adaptation of the classic ‘80s cartoon series ThunderCats. One thing he wants to make clear is that the movie is going to be a love letter to the series. While talking to CB, he said:
“My version is going to be 100% the ’80’s version. I’ve seen the rebooted anime one, but if I’m honest, the 80’s one that’s what Thundercats is to me, and that’s what I’d be creating. When I was in high school, I was so into Thundercats that I wrote this 270-something-page screenplay, like hand-written screenplay on it. It was my biggest dream growing up, to make a Thundercat’s movie, and so, here I am with the ability to actually do that. I’m still kind of fulfilling that dream.”
Wingard goes on to say that he’s not looking to update the ThunderCats characters for a modern live-action movie:
“When that dream started, it was well before the anime version, so that’s why. That’s what I know, and that’s the vibe. I’m trying to do it, and if Thundercats ends up happening, which I hope it does, my version, I’d want to bring to life the exact designs from the ’80s version. I want the looks of them; I don’t want it to be like, okay, it’s the movie, so you got to make them look more realistic somehow. It’s like No, no, no, no. I want to bring the cartoon and toys to life. I want to see the exact costumes and everything.”
I do love that he wants to 100% honor the original cartoon series! Makes me wish that he would’ve 100% honored Godzilla with Godzilla x Kong. But hey, maybe he’ll get ThunderCats right! The filmmaker previously offered an update on what’s going on with the project:
“Simon [Barrett] and I are still actively working on the script. We finished our last draft basically right when I was going into production on this movie and we just had to put everything on hold. [But] right now we’re actively working on it again. So whether that means that’s the next thing I do or [not], I’m not sure. But it’s definitely one of the top priorities I have right now in terms of working on a script.”
When previously talking about ThunderCats, writer Simon Barret: “I will say this, our ThunderCats adaptation is going to be really, really cool. I don’t think people are at all prepared for how long Adam Wingard has spent thinking about ThunderCats. They are not ready for Adam’s ThunderCats movie. It is going to destroy.”
Wingard opened up about the project and talked about the long road he’s been on trying to make it happen, saying:
“Thundercats is a dream project for me. When I was in high school, I was obsessed with it. You’d think at that point, I was a little too old, that my years of obsession with Thundercats would be when I was six years old. My real obsession with Thundercats came in high school, the pinnacle of me deciding I wanted to be a filmmaker, and pushing in that direction…I actually spent most of my 10th grade year, I completely blew it. I didn’t pay attention in school, made terrible grades. And the reason? I was writing my Thundercats screenplay through my entire tenth grade year. And I was hand writing it.”
He went on to explain what he is looking to do with the film, sharing:
“This is a huge passion thing for me. Nobody on this planet knows or has thought as much about Thundercats as I have. They gave me the reins. I saw this as an opportunity to do a new type of fantasy sci-fi spectacle film that people have never seen before. It’s got a rich mythology; the characters are fantastic. The colors. I want to do a Thundercats film that takes you back to that ‘80s aesthetic. 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.”
I hope that Wingard can actually pull this off.
