Fox-based New Regency has put robot project Voltron: Defender of the Universe into turnaround, according to Variety.

Ryan Kavanaugh's financing and production venture Relativity Media is in negotiations to back the property, though on a more moderate budget, utilizing the type of cost-effective technology employed in films including 300.

The Mark Gordon Co. still is attached to produce Voltron: Defender of the Universe, which is based on the popular Japanese animated TV series of the 1980s.

Mark Gordon and Jordan Wynn are producers. Bryan Zuriff is exec producing. Producers expect to attach a director within the next week.

Last summer, New Regency picked up the rights to the property, adapted by scribe Justin Marks.

Marks' take is described as a post-apocalyptic tale set in New York City and Mexico, where five survivors of an alien attack band together and end up piloting the five lion-shaped robots that combine and form the massive sword-wielding Voltron that helps battle Earth's invaders.