Adam Wingard Says His Movie THUNDERCATS Will 100% Honor the ’80s Series

AS Adam Wingard’S Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is having a strong success at the box office, the director talks about his new film adaptation of the classic 80s cartoon series ThunderCats. One thing he wants to make clear is that the film will be a love letter to the series. While speaking to CB, she said:

“My version will be 100% 80s. I’ve seen the reboot of the anime, but if I’m honest, 80s is what Thundercats is to me, and that’s what I would create. When I was at in high school, I was so passionate about Thundercats that I wrote this 270-something page screenplay, like it was written by hand. It was my biggest dream growing up, to make a Thundercat movie, and so here I am with the ability to actually do it I’m still living that dream.”

Wingard goes on to say that he is not trying to update the file ThunderCats characters for a modern live-action film:

“When that dream started, it was well before the anime version, that’s why. This is what I know, and this is the vibe. I’m trying to do that, and if Thundercats were to happen, which I hope it does, the my version, I would like to bring to life the exact designs of the ’80s version. I want the look of them; I don’t want it to be like, okay, it’s the movie, so you have to make them look more realistic somehow. It’s like No, no, no, no. I want to bring the cartoon and the toys to life. I want to see the exact costumes and everything.”

I love that it wants to 100% honor the original cartoon series! Makes me wish he would have honored Godzilla 100%. Godzilla x Kong. But hey, maybe he’ll figure it out ThunderCats Right! The director previously offered an update on what’s happening with the project:

“Simon [Barrett] and I’m still actively working on the script. We finished our last draft pretty much right as I was starting production on this movie and we had to put everything on hold. [But] We are currently 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 we spoke previously ThunderCatsthe writer Simon Barret: “I will say this, our ThunderCats the adaptation is going to be really, really cool. I don’t think people are at all prepared for the time that Adam Wingard spent thinking about ThunderCats. They’re not ready for Adam’s ThunderCats movie. It will destroy.”

Wingard talked about the project and talked about the long road he took to make it happen, saying:

“Thundercats is a dream project for me. When I was in high school, I was obsessed with it. You would think at that point, I was a little too old, that my years of obsession with Thundercats would have started when I was six. My real obsession with Thundercats came in high school, when I decided I wanted to be a director and pushed in that direction… I actually spent the majority of my year in 10th grade, I completely screwed it up. I didn’t pay attention in school, I got terrible grades. And the reason? I wrote the script for Thundercats throughout my 10th grade year. And I was writing it by hand.

He went on to explain what he plans to do with the film, sharing:

“This is a great passion for me. No one on this planet knows or has thought as much about the Thundercats as I do. They gave me the reins. I saw it as an opportunity to make a new kind of fantasy and sci-fi spectacle film that people had never seen before. It has a rich mythology; the characters are fantastic. Colors. I want to make a Thundercats movie that takes you back to the aesthetic of the ’80s. I don’t want to reinvent their look; I want them to look like the Thundercats. I don’t want to do it live either. I don’t want it to be like Cats, I don’t want those kinds of problems, no disrespect to that director who I’m not going to throw under the bus any more than everyone else has. I want to make a movie you’ve never seen before. A hybrid CGI film that has a hyper-real feel and somehow bridges the gap between cartoons and CGI. That’s the starting point and Simon Barrett and I are getting into the script now.”

I hope Wingard can actually pull it off.