'Aeon Flux' Live-Action TV Reboot Set at MTV Gale Anne Hurd to executive produce

[Canada]

Live-action TV adaptation of the animated series about a highly-skilled secret agent assassin living in a future anarchist society.

MTV is revisiting Aeon Flux.

The Viacom-owned cabler is developing a live-action reboot of the animated series that originally ran on the younger-skewing network for three seasons in 1990s.

Teen Wolf showrunner Jeff Davis is on board to pen the script and exec produce the drama alongside The Walking Dead's Gale Anne Hurd. Hurd, who was not attached to the original series, produced the 2005 feature film starring Charlize Theron.

The live-action series is set in a future dystopian state and revolves around a young assassin who teams with a group of biohacking rebels to save humanity as she becomes the hero known as Aeon Flux.

The original Aeon Flux first aired on MTV in 1991 as a six-part sequence of shorts that was featured in its Liquid Television experimental animation series. It returned in 1992 with five individual short-form episodes and again in 1995 as a 10-episode half-hour series, all of them animated. The series was originally created by animator Peter Chung.

Corporate sibling Paramount Pictures teamed with Lakeshore Entertainment and Hurd's Valhalla Motion Pictures banner for the Theron-led feature. Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi penned the feature, which was produced by MTV Films. Co-starring Frances McDormand, the film was a critical failure and box office bomb. Produced on a budget of $62 million, it grossed $52.3 million worldwide. The movie has an abysmal 9 percent rating among critics and 39 percent audience rating, while the MTV animated series registers an 89 percent among critics.

Aeon Flux becomes the latest MTV property to be mined from the cable network's library. Sources say the cable network is poised to launch a studio to help further monetize its library as part of Viacom's larger push to revitalize its cable brands.

Other MTV series to score revivals of late include Jersey Shore, Yo MTV Raps andTRL, with the cabler also in development on a Real World revival.

Davis was behind drama Teen Wolf, itself a reboot of the Michael J. Fox '80s feature. In 2016, Davis teamed with MTV for a take on War of the Worlds that is said to still be active, along with a new incarnation of Teen Wolf for the cabler. He's repped by WME and Jackoway Tyerman.

Reboots remain in high demand as broadcast, cable and streaming outlets look for proven IP in a bid to cut through a cluttered landscape quickly approaching 500 scripted originals. Having the original producers attached is key, with MTV standing to benefit from a potential library sale of the original series should the live-action take move forward. A formal announcement about MTV's studio is expected to come this week.

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[Hedrox]

It's at Paramount+ now but wow, it's been 4 years since this thing was announced.

Anyway, here's an update from Jeff Davis:

With any project that’s a reboot or a remake, you can’t worry about what the old fans are gonna think. You have to be true to the source material, in a way that’s true to your own artistic vision. If you come onto a project like that, yes, I know that they are gonna be criticisms. I know that people are gonna be coming for me with pitchforks and saying, ‘That’s not the Æon Flux of my childhood.’ You can’t care. You have to tell the story that you wanna tell. So, that’s what I’m doing with it. I’m a huge fan of the TV show. I loved it, as a kid. So, you’ll see inspiration in it, but you’ll also see changes because it has to become a show that makes sense, and is not just an avant garde, five-minute, beautiful tone piece.

I doubt this thing actually happens but we'll see

[Lutz]

That doesn’t sound very promising.

[d1360]

The movie with Charlize doesn't seem so bad to me, maybe it's because I liked the clothes and the architecture. Still, I hope the project goes ahead, it has my poor support.

[s2mikey]

Originally Posted by d1360

The movie with Charlize doesn't seem so bad to me, maybe it's because I liked the clothes and the architecture. Still, I hope the project goes ahead, it has my poor support.

Yeah, the movie just didnt work. They tried but it just didnt work. Id try this again. Always thought it had potential. Of course, when you hear reboot you wonder what they're gonna change or screw with?

Still - Im intrigued here.

[Lutz]

The movie with Theron seemed like they just retooled the script and production design from that LOGAN’S RUN reboot that never happened.

[d1360]

Originally Posted by s2mikey

Yeah, the movie just didnt work. They tried but it just didnt work. Id try this again. Always thought it had potential. Of course, when you hear reboot you wonder what they're gonna change or screw with?

Still - Im intrigued here.

The story at the time and now still seems good to me, but the film is riddled with fights and many of them quite poorly filmed. Now I see it again and I should have lowered it one more point.

Considering the product they have achieved so far, they should try to add a dash of history and a bit more drama to it.

[Michael24]

I finally watched the movie a few years ago after revisiting the cartoon on DVD and thought it was a lot better than I was expecting based on its reputation. I actually enjoyed it a lot and thought much of it worked and only a little bit didn't.

Still, I'm always down for an even closer adaptation of the cartoon, but that update doesn't sound like we're gonna get it. I can see the Theron film getting reevaluated and becoming more appreciated in the wake of a new film.

[Morsoth]

I liked the film, and I do appreciate the cartoon (that I only discovered during the release of the film). I hope the cartoon get released on Blu-ray if they do a new TV series.

[Walter Kafka]

It was cool in five minute chunks on Liquid TV.

[Lutz]

Originally Posted by Walter Kafka

It was cool in five minute chunks on Liquid TV.

And it was even better in the half hour character driven episodes.