Director Adam Wingard’s monster-mash movie,Godzilla Vs Kongis currently lighting up the box office, and now the filmmaker has revealed which element of his kaiju epic inspired his vision for the recently announcedThunderCatsmovie. Wingard revealed that it was during post-production onGodzilla Vs. Kong, and working on the Hollow Earth sequences specifically, that made him realize how he could make aThunderCatsmovie work.
“The ThunderCats thing is interesting, because I’d kind of written it off for so long. Because, like I said, as a kid, it just seemed like it was impossible. And so, it was only really actually during the pandemic - and I would say during the late phases of the Godzilla vs. Kong post - when I started getting shots in from the Hollow Earth scene. I started looking at it and, honestly, this is how it started. It was literally I was looking at shots ofHollow Earthand I thought, god, this is exactly what a ThunderCats movie should look like. And then I thought, wait a minute, I could make the ThunderCats movie!”
AThundercatsproject has been in the works for years, and Wingard goes on to reveal that, while the script has seen was “actually not too bad,” the idea has always been geared more towards live action, something that Wingard thinks is the wrong approach.
“But I think the thing was is that it wasclearly designed to be shot live-action. And so, there are certain things that when you read it, it doesn’t feel totally Thundercats because you can tell they were thinking of the limitations of live-action cinema. And anytime I picture the Thundercats live-action it’s basically just putting makeup on people, it just looks ridiculous. It just doesn’t seem right.”
After saying that, understandably, theThunderCats"have to look like cats," and that the character are a lot “bigger” and “stranger” than live action could possibly achieve, Wingard went on to reveal that it was in fact the stunning creation of a CGI King Kong.
“When I was making some scenes of Hollow Earth: I looked at that, and I thought the technology’s there. And my experience, not just with the aesthetic of Hollow Earth, but also I felt like making King Kong such a well-rounded CGI character, that was so emotive and believable and filled with limitless possibilities for me as a director, that’s when I was like: I can do a Thundercats movie, and it would actually work.”
TheThunderCatsmovie therefore will be created using a hybrid of CGI and animation, with fans now able to watchGodzilla Vs. Kongknowing that it gives us some idea of what the movie’s visuals will look like. Wingard’s passion for the property could not be clearer, with the director having already stated that the movie will be the beloved “’80s cartoon series brought to life,” while appealing to both kids and adults alike.
First aired way back in 1985,ThunderCatsfollows agroup of cat-like humanoid aliens from the planet Thundera. When their dying planet meets its end, the group is forced to flee its homeland, and end up on Third Earth, eventually battling all manner of mutants, monsters and the evil overlord, Mumm-Ra. The series has become a staple of many a childhood, with fans of the series having wondered whether Hollywood would ever be able to realize theThunderCatsin a modern-day movie. Well, that time is now. ThunderCats Ho! This comes to us fromUproxx.
