nobody needs another live-action American remake of a Japanese anime series, but how about a live-action American remake of a Japanese anime series that was already hashed out for American audiences decades ago? What if this Japanese anime series was actually several separate anime series that were technically unrelated, but somehow combined into one thing? yes we are talking about Robotechone of the first anime shows to have a big impact on the United States that Hollywood seems to remember every few years when it starts to feel the urge to throw big bucks at a hot property with name recognition.
It’s been five years since we heard from anyone trying to make a Robotech movie, which means we need to do an update… and look at this, we have one: Deadline said Hawk Eye director Rhys Thomas has been tapped to direct a Robotech movie for Sony (“Harmony Gold is also involved,” says Deadline, which is a fun detail for those of us who have followed the whereabouts of Robotechbecause sure Harmony Gold is involved).
It seems like a legitimate step towards making this movie, since it has a script and a director, but we’ve already been duped. That update from five years ago was that wonder woman co-writer Jason Fuchs was working on a screenplay (the current scenario does not seem to be his), and a few months before we had heard that Andy Muschietti would direct the film (he no longer does, of course). James Wan was tied years before that, and Warner Bros. was trying to get there years before thatand Tobey Maguire’s production company picked up the rights years before that following the success of the first Transformers film.
So, this has been a saga, which you would normally have had to combine three unrelated anime series to get, and now…perhaps– it will actually end with the making of the movie. But we’re not too optimistic about it… it’s been almost 15 years since Tobey Maguire started trying to make it big.
For those who don’t know Robotechit begins on an Earth near the future (in the distant year of 2009) after an alien spacecraft crashed years earlier and inadvertently gifted humanity with many exciting sci-fi technologies, including the ability to craft extremely cool transforming fighter jets called Valkyries. The aliens eventually return, looking for their spaceship, and bad things happen. It’s like Superior gun meets Transformers meets star trekand a pop singer named Minmei plays a surprisingly huge role in the events. Everything is pretty cool.
