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While the talks about a live-action Ben 10 movie have been in the air infrequently in recent years, there was always the prospect of a big-budget movie based on the Cartoon Network Studios series. However, in a rather disheartening development for the fans of the series, the live-action movie is officially out of the picture for Warner Brothers.
As confirmed by filmmaker Steve Richards, the movie is officially dead as Joel Silver, who was slated to develop the project, is no longer attached to Warner Brothers. The primary reason for this, Richards explained, was that the "rights expired."
Yes, Ben 10 still remains a property of WB, and there is a possibility of a film based on the famous character in the future, but the saga that has been going on since the 2011 announcement has come to an end with this confirmation from Steve Richards.
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Steve Richards explains why the long-drawn Ben 10 live-action saga has come to an end
The talks of a Ben 10 live-action movie go back decades. The plans for this development were first reported in 2011 by Variety. Joel Silver was attached to the project and was supposed to develop it.
Moreover, Steve Richards was also attached to the project as an acting producer. With the film's multi-character approach, it had the potential to become a huge hit and feature a huge star cast as the numerous alien counterparts of Ben.
However, the production of the movie stalled when Warner Brothers ended their long-standing relationship with Joel Silver in 2012, which also hampered the plans for this movie. There was also a $30 million payout involved in this separation.
While promoting his latest film, The Killer's Game, Richards finally addressed the status of the live-action Ben 10 movie, confirming that it was no longer moving forward. He told Direct:
"I have to admit, I should update my IMDb. No. So, when I was working with Joel Silver, we had the rights to that, and, yeah, that expired... But it should get made, right?"
Interestingly, this movie idea was conceived long before a lot of other live-action adaptation ideas, which have come to life now. Yet, even with the immense potential, this project never moved forward.
WB will continue to have the rights to the movie, regardless, and if things go right, there may be another attempt at developing the same. But as of now, nothing like that is happening.
What is Ben 10 all about?
Ben 10 is an animated series conceived by Man of Action and produced by Cartoon Network Studios. It follows the story of a young boy named Ben Tennyson, who stumbles upon the Omnitrix, an extra-terrestrial device that allows Ben to transform into the aliens whose DNAs are integrated into the device.
The show originally featured 10 aliens with distinct abilities but later expanded to many more. The original series ran from 2005 to 2008. Beyond that, it has developed into a huge media franchise and remains one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.
There are also two live-action movies based on the franchise, Ben 10: Race Against Time (2007) and Alien Swarm (2009), but both of them were released directly to television.
There is still scope to expand this franchise to a big-budget Warner Brothers movie.
