So What's Going On With Your Favorite '80s Cartoon Franchise Adapations?

For anyone who spent the Saturday mornings of their youths camped out in front of their parents' 28-inch RCA television sets and daydreaming of battling the forces of evil from invading distant planets like Eternia and Anus Arus, this pressing update:

After a disastrous development run at Warners, where it fell under the stewardship of Joel Silver, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe has found new life, Variety reports, this time at Sony. The rights returned to Mattel, and so now it will be developed from the ground up for Columbia Pictures. By the power of Grayskull -- don't f**k it up.

Meanwhile, THR reports that Voltron: Defender of the Universe is languishing in court, as a group of indie producers once attached to the adaptation filed suit in L.A. Superior Court against St. Louis-based World Events, who own the rights to the property. The producers claim they broke a contract and shopped it around to other producers during a period in which the rights were exclusively theirs. The project is currently in Atlas Entertainment's hands (the production company who brought you Scooby-Doo, The Bank Job and Get Smart, among others), and the legal wranglings shouldn't threaten its future.

As for Thundercats? You saw the concept art exclusively at Movieline, but there's been still not so much as a meow out of Warners. Perhaps it might have a better shot at Sony as well? Time to sh*t or get off the litter.

· He-Man finds new home at Sony [Variety]

· 'Voltron' dispute spawns lawsuit [THR]



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