It’s not every day that two of the most famous directors in animation history jump into the world of comic books, but that’s about to happen. Directors Ron Clements and John Musker, who made films you may have heard of like Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and Moana, are looking to make an animated movie based on the DC series Metal Men.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news and add the pair has teamed up with writer Celeste Ballard (Space Jam: A New Legacy) on the project. Clements and Musker wrote a treatment and are looking to direct but there’s no word if this would be Warner Bros. theatrical or for HBO Max.
Now, obviously, Metal Men isn’t one of DC’s premiere titles but the concept certainly has some real potential and has been brought back to life over the years. Created in the early 1960s by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru, the story followed a brilliant scientist who created six intelligent robots (who, despite the title, were not all men) bestowed with powers centered on the specific metal they were made of: gold, iron, lead, tin, mercury, and platinum. Tones shifted with the characters and there’s no word on what Clements, Musker, and Ballard have planned, but one would imagine, if you look at the director’s previous works, a family-friendly adventure with heart and humour seems likely.
According to the trade, this isn’t the first time Warner Bros. has tried to bring Metal Men to the big screen. A live action version was in development in the early 2000s with big-time names such as Lauren Shuler Donner (X-Men), DC mainstay Geoff Johns, and even Barry Sonnenfeld (Men In Black). That didn’t materialise (get it?) though, and with Warner Bros. really going through its DC properties to spread across all its mediums, this feels like a version that has a good shot of solidifying. Yup, another metal pun.