Strip mining the 80s

When I wrote the post about the G.I. Joe movie awhile back, I started ruminating over the apparent trend over the past few years of making movies based on 80’s TV series. Like "Miami Vice" and "The Dukes of Hazzard."

It took awhile, but there is an "A-Team" movie in production, scheduled for a 2008 release. And I’m a little surprised someone hasn’t taken up such obvious movie-fodder as "Airwolf" and "MacGyver." I mean, if ever there was an 80’s show destined to be a movie, "Airwolf" is it.

It’s when they start hitting the 80’s cartoons that you realize they’re desperate (or is that brilliant?)—like "Transformers" and the afore-mentioned "G.I. Joe." I got to thinking about what other noteworthy 80’s cartoons to watch out for…

• Robotech: recently announced, possibly headed up by Tobey Maguire.
• He-Man: "Masters of the Universe" was made way back in 1987, with Dolph Lundgren as He-Man. That’s apparently not stopping a new version (set for 2009) though: here’s the IMDB page for it, and here’s an article from May of this year.
• Voltron: There was some speculation that JJ Abrahms’ weird "Cloverfield" movie was going to be Voltron, but that was debunked. However, someone else picked up the ball: a movie set for 2008 apparently; here’s the super-secret IMDB page for it. More details here.
• Thundercats: Good grief, Esquire has an article about this that includes cast and everything. Who knew? (Ugh, it even mentions a "Care Bear" movie.) I got snookered! (See comment below.) Here’s a real link to a "Thundercats" movie.
• Gummi Bears: Please, no.
• Smurfs: Please, no. (Alas, it looks like a CGI animated movie is set for 2008.)
• M.A.S.K.: None as far as I know.
• Thundarr the Barbarian: I’m getting Eclectic Old-School here. But a cartoon set on an apocalyptic, far-future version of the Earth? (Even the moon is split in two!) What’s not to like? But no movie treatment as far as I know.

What’s next?