Warner Bros. has stepped out of the box and commissioned Jerry O’Flaherty to direct the upcoming Thundercats feature film. O’Flaherty is best known for his work in the video game world. He served as the art director on the recent Xbox 360 hit “Gears of War” from Epic Studios. His credits also include work on “Unreal Tournament 3,” also from Epic, and the “Command and Conquer” series by Westwood Studios.
O’Flaherty has been looking to make the jump from video games to film for a while now. The film will be CG animated, a natural progression for O’Flaherty from video games. Over the past five years, games have become more film-like than ever calling on million dollar budgets to produce. Gears of War was a testament to that.
The director told Variety, “It feels like a natural thing for me to step into… Games have come so far now. The last four years of my life have been about bringing the energy of filmmaking into the videogame experience.”
O’Flaherty said he would honor the Thundercats franchise by not deviating from its 80s flavor, which will suit fans just fine. The franchise, about humanoid cats from Thundera who crash land on Third Earth, produced comic books, an animated series, and a toy-line.
Paul Sopocy is already on board as writer for the film. Warner Bros. optioned the screenplay from Sopocy earlier this summer.
I hope Thundercats does better with him on board than Ion Storm or Westwood Studios did.
Hey Bags! Thanks for letting me know about this article. I am a huge fan of Thundercats so, naturally, I would love to see a movie but I am still doubtful about a live action translation, as I mentioned on MySpace. This show is just full of an energy and seksiness that I think will be very hard to capture with “real people”, yu know? I’d just hate to see the spirit of the show lost just in an attempt to reel in a cult following.
With Jerry O’Flaherty on the job, I think there is more hope since the video game and animated series markets have some overlap. He may have the vision to see this through but, still, this is a huge undertaking. I loved the all the cinematics of Gears of War so I can see the potential, of course.. Honestly, I am scared, as I was when Transformers was released.
To me, the issue is the medium, not the production team.. Casting will also be huge. I mean, who can possibly pull off Cheetara? That alone is HUGE. For a lot of the fans, she’s easily the #2 or #3 favorite character.. And you know all us horny geeks want to see her done right! =oP
Seriously though, I am hopeful but, as with anything built up and hyped up, I keep my expectations in check. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst, I say! ;o)
I liked Gears of War, but i don’t know how a game director will translate to movie director. It seems like a huge jump.