According to The Hollywood Reporter, Animus Films and NHO Entertainment have filed a lawsuit against World Events, the holder of the TV property VOLTRON: DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE. NHO and Animus claim that World Events and their partner Kickstart Productions illegally shopped the VOLTRON property around during an exclusive period, and conspired to make a VOLTRON movie without NHO or Animus on the contract or the payroll.
World Events and Kickstart volleyed back on Tuesday, with a spokesperson for the defendants saying “this lawsuit is frivolous and without merit, and we will defend ourselves vigorously,” adding “fortunately, these baseless claims do not in any way encumber the film or any other Voltron project, and we are excited to proceed on the long-awaited Voltron feature film with our partner Atlas.”
That is good news to VOLTRON fans and Atlas Productions who acquired the film rights back in July. However, this does not mean that the feature is completely off the lawsuit hook. Though NHO and Animus claim that Kickstart peddled the property without consulting them, they still want a piece of any movie made.
But the suit does higlights the work indie producers do on a project, and the way that work is recognized when and if that project comes to fruition. “We want the movie to get made,” Young said. “We just want to make sure we’re involved in some way and are compensated.”
