20th Century Fox-based New Regency Productions is close to a deal with the Mark Gordon Co. to adapt Toonami founding series Voltron: Defender of the Universe into a live-action film, according to today's Daily Variety.

Gordon has been developing the picture with scriptwriter Justin Marks.

Marks' take is described as a post-apocalyptic tale set in New York City and Mexico. Five ragtag survivors of an alien attack band together and end up piloting the five lion-shaped robots that combine and form the massive sword-wielding Voltron that helps battle Earth's invaders.

A Voltron movie has been in the works for nearly three years, with Jim Young's Animus Films funding its development, but this summer's box-office success of Transformers has piqued the interest of New Regency to join the project.

Marks has become a go-to guy in Hollywood for comicbook, videogame and toy-based adaptations, handling the previously-announced He-Man and the Masters of the Universe as well as the Green Arrow-based movie Supermax for Warner Brothers, in addition to a Street Fighter feature for Fox.