Nearly a decade ago, right around the time of his Men in Black 3, director Barry Sonnenfeld revealed his plans to bring oddball DC Comics heroes the Metal Men to screens everywhere. Even earlier this year he was still claiming to be developing that film with Warner Bros., but it appears to have been reduced to scrap. THR reports that another Metal Men film is in the works, but this won’t be live-action and will instead be animated.
Warner Animation Group has an animated Metal Men movie with a treatment by Disney animation legends Ron Clements and John Musker, known for The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. They’ll be joined on the Space Jam: New Legacy writer Celeste Ballard. The expectation by Clements and Musker is that they’ll also direct.
The Metal Men are a group of six robots created by inventor Will Magnus, each imbued with the properties their names suggests: Gold is the field leader; Iron is strong; Lead is thick and stupid; Tin is shy and timid; Mercury is hot-headed and quick to anger, etc.
Ballard’s background is in comedy, so don’t be surprised if this Metal Men leans into their weird, humorous aspects.
