EXCLUSIVE: While Universal Pictures is sorting through the development and production projects it received in the DreamWorks Animation deal, it also inherited a live-action picture that had started quietly being developed when Jeffrey Katzenberg ran the animation factory. Universal now has a live-action Voltron film that is being scripted by David Hayter, the X-Men and Watchmen scribe who is also dialed into the fanboy set as the voice of Solid Snake in the English versions of the Metal Gear Solid franchise.

I’ve confirmed Hayter is writing the live-action project that started at DWA, which is also generating the animated series Voltron: Legendary Defender for Netflix. The property is about a corps of astronauts that pilot a giant super robot.

The studio would not comment on where it all is going to go, and it seems up in the air because it is an inherited project. Universal will get a script draft and make decisions, but it certainly has the branded franchise potential that is catnip to major studios.