Guillermo del Toro bringing out Champions

Back in 1968-69 there was a short-lived British television series called The Champions, which was about a secret agents who, after being rescued from a plane crash, are given superpowers by an "advanced civilization." So, kind of like Heroes, but with more alien civilizations involved. While the show seems mostly forgotten, given that its wikipedia entry is less than 2500 words long, the series is up for revival on the big screen by Guillermo del Toro.

Toro will be writing, directing and producing the film likely sometime next year. He'll be working with United Artists on the project, but that's about all anyone knows about the film as of yet. The film's press release says that Champions "marks a departure" for del Toro, since it's neither a comic adaptation nor a fantasy. This is incorrect (obviously, superpowers are a fantasy and related to comics), but not a bad thing since this sounds right up del Toro's alley.

For now, del Toro's next film, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, will be out on July 11 next year. Once that finishes filming, del Toro will probably move right on to work on 3993, a film about hostages taken during the '90s with connections to the Spanish Civil War. Considering all this and his work producing Alfonso Cuarón's next feature, it could be a while before he gets to work on Champions.