Adam Wingard & Robert Kirkman Team For Universal’s Feature Film Adaptation of Sci-Fi Comic Book ‘Hardcore’

Director Adam Wingard’s profile has risen thanks to the box office success of Godzilla Vs. Kong, the crossover film set in Legendary’s Monsterverse has become the biggest box office earner since the pandemic began as it crossed $400 million globally and is inching towards reaching $100 million domestically.

Another genre project has arrived.

Universal is also trying to get on team Wingard as there are reports via The Hollywood Reporter that the filmmaker will co-write and direct a feature film based on the comic book Hardcore with co-creator Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead, Invincible) writing the film’s story and producing. The script will be worked on by Wingard and Will Simmon, which is based on the comic created by Kirkman and Marc Marc Silvestri.

The Hardcore Program can turn anyone—your neighbor, your co-worker, your spouse—into a human drone to get to targets normal soldiers can’t. Agent Drake is the best soldier Hardcore has to offer, until he’s stranded in a body with only 72 hours to discover who’s hijacked the Program. But who can he trust when his enemy can change their appearance as easily as you change your shirt?

It’s unknown where Hardcore lands on the project pecking order as Adam Wingard has other movies he’s attached to. The filmmaker has since been reportedly linked to another Monsterverse film, possibly Son of Kong, and is making a hybrid animated/CGI feature film for Warner Bros. based on the cult hit cartoon ThunderCats.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Legendary Reportedly In Talks With ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’ Director Adam Wingard For Another MonsterVerse Film – Could End Up ‘Son of Kong’

Legendary might not be winding-down plans for their MonsterVerse after all. After Godzilla Vs. Kong crossed $400 million globally at the box office over the weekend, there is talk that the studio might be already looking to secure Adam Wingard for another future MonsterVerse movie.

The Hollywood Reporter claims that Wingard is currently in talks with Legendary to direct another film in the MonsterVerse for them, potentially with the title of Son of Kong. This could make sense as the ending of Godzilla Vs. Kong seemed to hint there were further adventures for Kong in his new home in the Hollow Earth.

I have to believe that audiences would be a little more inclined to support a second solo Kong film given how well both Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla Vs. Kong have done in comparison to Godzilla: King of The Monsters. Also, that Kong seems to have a little bit more of a personality than Godzilla which goes a long way for a CGI performance from a towering monster and now that he can communicate with humans makes another film even more appealing.

Son of Kong would likely mean that there is female of Kong’s species somewhere in the Hollow Earth, but we still don’t know if that is the project they’ll end up making since they don’t even have a screenwriter attached at this point and the Son of Kong is only a rumbling of a title.

Adam is a little busy at the moment working on a sequel to John Woo’s Face/Off for Paramount Pictures and is going to make a big screen adaptation of the cult cartoon ThunderCats mixing animation with CGI for Warner Bros. as well. It’s unclear when this new MonsterVerse is expected to shoot or even be released. Normally, Legendary announces their plans on these projects way in advance and seemed like they could attempt to pause the release of them entirely.

If Adam Wingard closes a deal with Legendary it would make him the first MonsterVerse director to make two films.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

‘ThunderCats’ Movie Coming From ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ Director Adam Wingard & Warner Bros.

Coming off a massive international debut of Godzilla vs Kong earning an impressive $123 million, director Adam Wingard is attached to direct another huge IP project.

Warner Bros. has spent ages trying to figure out how to turn the ThunderCats franchise into a movie and Deadline reports that Wingard will be developing a feature film with his writing partner Simon Barrett. They’ll rewrite a previous script from David Coggeshall and Adam is attached to direct the hybrid project a combination of CGI and animation.

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.

Adam Wingard also spoke with Deadline about ThunderCats being his dream project and how he approached Warner Bros. about making it after they loved Godzilla vs Kong. It’s looking like a good move after the Monsterverse movie might end up being one of the highest grossing films of 2021 and the pandemic era.

WINGARD: “I’m in a place where Godzilla vs. Kong has gone well with Warner Bros. They love the movie, as we were wrapping it. I heard there was a ThunderCats 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. 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 a rich mythology; the characters are fantastic. The colors. I want to do a ThunderCats film that takes you back to that ‘80s aesthetic. 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. I don’t want it to look like Cats, I don’t want those kinds of issues — no disrespect to that director, whom I don’t mean to throw under the bus any more than everyone else has. 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.”

The filmmaker is about to launch the domestic release of Godzilla vs Kong this week and is attached to make a sequel to Face/Off.

SOURCE: DEADLINE