New 80s-Style THUNDERCATS Movie Will Use Hyper-Real CGI

Adam Wingard will helm the new ThunderCats movie. And today, Wingard says the film will be a new type of fantasy sci-fi spectacle people have never seen before. One with rich mythology, fantastic characters, and lots of colors. It will keep the ‘80s aesthetic and won’t reinvent the look of the ThunderCats. And it won’t be live-action, but a hybrid hyper-real CGI film that bridges the gap between cartoon and CGI.

Check out his full rundown below.

He tells Deadline: “I heard there was a script out there and it happened to be set up with some of my producers on Death Note. I asked them, I want to rewrite this script with my friend Simon Barrett. This is a huge passion thing for me. Nobody on this planet knows or has thought as much about ThunderCats as I have.

He continues: “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 rich mythology; the characters are fantastic. The colors. I want to do a ThunderCats film that takes you back to that ‘80s aesthetic. But 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.

He says: “I don’t want it to look like Cats, I don’t want those kinds of issues […] 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.”

RELATED: Adam Wingard Will Direct New Live-Action THUNDERCATS Movie!

Dan Lin and Roy Lee (who produced Wingard’s Death Note) developed the project with screenwriter David Coggeshall. But now it seems that Wingard will rewrite a script with long-time collaborator Simon Barrett (You’re Next, The GuestBlair Witch).

The “big-scale feature” is based on Rankin Bass’ animated series that ran from 1985-89. The show followed the adventures of the team of heroes, cat-like humanoid aliens. They abandon their dying homeworld and crash land on a planet called Third Earth.

When the Thundercats awaken from their suspended animation, the group’s king and leader, Lion-O, discovers that his suspension capsule has slowed, rather than stopped, his aging, rendering him a child in the body of an adult. The Thundercats’ sudden arrival does not go unnoticed by the planet’s hostile inhabitants, putting them on a collision course with a demonic, mummified sorcerer known as Mumm-Ra.

Tobin Wolf created the series. Rankin-Bass Productions’ Telepictures Corporation originally distributed the show. Telepictures Corporation later merged with Lorimar Productions in 1986. In 1989, Warner Bros. purchased Lorimar-Telepictures and has owned the Thundercats rights to the series from that point on.

Are you excited about Adam Wingard’s Thundercats?

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