EXCLUSIVE: As his new film Godzilla vs. Kong opens Wednesday in U.S. theaters and on HBO Max after turning up a Hollywood film pandemic record $123 million gross in 38 overseas markets over the weekend, director Adam Wingard is set to direct ThunderCats. That is a big-scale feature based on an animated TV series that ran from 1985-89 by Rankin Bass, and several other iterations, comic books and merchandise.
The project had been developed by Rideback’s Dan Lin and Vertigo’s Roy Lee (they were producers on the Wingard-directed Death Note), with an early script by David Coggeshall. Wingard will rewrite a script with Simon Barrett, and will turn all this into a hybrid of CGI and animation. The series focuses on a group of cat-like humanoid aliens who live on the dying planet Thundera. The ThunderCats are force to flee their homeland.
The film will use the animated series as a jumping-off point, but then Wingard will take it in a direction he has been thinking about for many years. Check out the director interview that follows right below this to fully understand just how deep that passion is. It is noteworthy that this makes Wingard the first filmmaker to sign a deal with Warner Bros since its parent WarnerMedia surprised every director of a WB film by putting the 2021 slate on HBO Max along with its U.S. theatrical debut.
Wingard is repped by CAA, Grandview and Morris Yorn.