In an article announcing the split between Skydance Animation and Netflix, Deadline casually mentions that “Paramount will release theatrically Skydance Animation’s Cosmic Motors from director [John] Lasseter and co-director Louie Del Carmen”. This would mark Lasseter’s first directorial effort since Cars 2 in 2011.

The film is reportedly based on the book of the same name by Daniel Simon. Cosmic Motors is not a tradtional story based book but a series of concept art and renderings for futuristic vehicles wrapped around a light backstory:

“The picture book invites on 176 pages to explore vehicle designs of a far away galaxy called Galaxion, where futuristic concepts exist in everyday life. Nine different spaceships, pods, race cars, giant trains, warships and balloons from various planets of the Galaxion system are shown, entirely made up from Daniel’s imagination. Each chapter shows the design process of each vehicle, from the first ideation sketches to the stunningly detailed 3-D models to the final photo-realistic full spread renderings…”

This would not be the first time someone has tried to adapt Cosmic Motors into a film. In 2014, it was announced that Warner Bros. and Michael Bay had acquired the rights to the book, with production getting as far as hiring a writer and producers.