Hey folks... there's news today from Deadline Hollywood that Zak Penn has been hired to write the ROM: SPACEKNIGHT film for Paramount Pictures and Allspark, Hasbro's film division. Penn is hot off the critical success of the out-this-week READY PLAYER ONE, and has had a hand in many of the most successful Marvel Comics adaptations, including X-MEN 2 and THE AVENGERS (as well as some disappointments, like X-MEN: THE LAST STAND and ELEKTRA).
I loved the Parker Brothers ROM toy as a kid, and loved him even more when he became a Marvel Comics character. I had already been a huge MICRONAUTS fan and worshipped Bill Mantlo. ROM was/is, okay, a massive rip-off of Darth Vader (the same with Baron Karza of the Micronauts), but even as a rip-off, he was cool for the time, and intimidating to my 1:6 scale G.I. Joe figures. The toy is unbelievably low-tech for today, but at the time, it was one of the cooler toys because it had LED lights and sounds associated with it.
I confess that I am a bit surprised to see that the story material is likely concerning the Dire Wraiths. I believed that to be a Marvel-created and owned canon, as Mantlo invented all of that for the license from the aether (before the comic book, the toy had NO backstory for advertising or packaging). If he isn't well credited here, I'll have a bit of a snit. A brief look at the IDW comic updates shows that Dire Wraiths are once again ROM's villain/mission, so perhaps the mythology was part of the licensing deal Parker Brothers made with Marvel back then...? Comicsalliance.com
James Gunn expressed interest in having ROM turn up in the outer-space continuity of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, but explained at the time that the license was not up for consideration. Even with ROM not a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it will still be fun for the kid in me to see him live on, blasting out Dire Wraiths disguised as human beings. Not sure if the nostalgia will make for a successful film without the Marvel element... time will tell.
Read the Deadline Hollywood article here: Deadline.Com
-- Precious Roy
