Netflix has landed Legendary’s planned live-action Gundam, now with Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts and Brian K. Vaughan attached.
Vogt-Roberts will produce and direct from a script by Vaughan, who will also executive produce.
The original Gundam series, which began in 1979, is set in the Universal Century, an era in which people have emigrated to space colonies because of a growing population on Earth. Eventually, the people living in the colonies seek their autonomy and launch a war of independence against the people on Earth. Battles are fought by piloting robots known as mobile suits.
The massively popular series has led to multibillion-dollar sales in merchandise and licensing, including animated films, video games, plastic models, toys and books. (Gundam had a cameo in Steven Spielberg’s pop-culture-obsessed Ready Player One.)
Vogt-Roberts’ last feature was 2017’s Kong: Skull Island. The filmmaker, repped by UTA, 3 Arts, and Jackoway Austen, is also attached to direct an adaption of the video game Metal Gear Solid.
Vaughan, the famed comic book writer turned screenwriter, is currently executive producing the series adaption of his comic Y: The Last Man. He is repped by Verve and Ziffren Brittenham.
