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Robotech Heading to Big Screen, Starring Toby Maguire
dominique_cimafranca writes "Classic anime cult favorite "Robotech" may be next for the big screen live action treatment, if recent news from SciFi.com's SCI FI Wire is to be believed. Tobey Maguire will produce and may star in the film. The article says 'Warner Brothers Pictures picked up the rights to Robotech, which features giant robots known as mechas. Maguire is producing through his Maguire Entertainment banner and is eyeing the lead role in what the studio plans as an SF franchise a la Paramount's hit Transformers.'" I wonder if they'll go back to the Macross source material when plotting the movie... there's a lot more good substance there then in our version.
in spectacular "me too" action!
As long as he doesn't f-it up along the lines of Spiderman III. Of course, Transformers mostly sucked too. Maybe the higher-level storyline in Robotech will allow for a better movie? Go go Hollywood crap pump!
The version we got in the US is much more "Hollywood-like": It has romance, a love circle, heroes fighting to save the country/planet/whatever, and nearly-stereotypical villains.
Apparently, all the mechs in this re-write, will be powered by stored energy of Cory Doctorow's ego.
Part of me is going:
OOOH! AHHG! YES!
But another part of me is wondering how well this is going to translate into live action. And whether or not it's going to wind up stepping all over the beloved (though flawed) series that introduced so many people to anime.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Clearly, nothing can beat the stop motion awesomeness that was Robot Jox.
"Mecha" not "mechas". The same way that "deers" or "mooses" are incorrect. One mecha or many mecha, there is no S at the end.
Besides that, a Robotech live-action with today's 3D animation will absolutely rock! It'd be hard to pack into 2 hours, but I'd like to see some of the 2nd and 3rd Robotech series (and/or Macross Plus) mecha involved, since they look so cool.
gigantino.tv - Heavy but weighs nothing.
Of course, with Warner Bros. in the fray now, they might actually work out the IP rights, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Anyone who thinks that a Hollywood, live-action movie remake of an extremely long running cartoon show is somehow going to be more true to the original story than the American cartoon has never, ever, in their entire life watched any American movie based on a cartoon or video game.
Ever.
Posing the question is tantamount to trolling on the front page.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
While I and most enjoyed Macross over Robotech. The big difference I can remember was Macross dealt with the idea of proculture, as in culture before the giant aliens became genetically modified, where Robotech strung on two unrelated anime fighting over a mythical engery source known as proculture. Such a big difference in story lines would make it difficult to integrate actual Macross sequels and prequils. Near as I'm aware the only sequel, Macross Plus, was released in English though away from the Harmony Gold treatment.
A number of "Robotech" movies were planned, all canceled. This is one of those cases where I feel the fans suffered by a company holding onto to their intellectual property far too long without actually using it.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
I thought slashdot would have picked it up already but Joust, the 1982 video game with gladiators on flying ostriches is being made into a movie,... somehow?
They were knights (the game was loosely medieval-themed) and yeah you're right there is supposed to be a movie. Weird. Paramount is looking at it, the article says.
Still, once Paramount passes on the idea and they can't find another major production house to pick it up, it'll probably go direct-to-DVD. Maybe kill off an evening with it that way.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I will be interviewing Harmony Gold representative Kevin McKeever at 7:00 Eastern tonight about this and other new Robotech developments on my live talk podcast Space Station Liberty. Please call in with your questions!
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Cowboy Neil in a tube top. There is a God, but he enjoys playing cruel tricks on nerds.
Monstar L
Well, there are people in China/Korea who earn their money by playing games for westerners. Perhaps you can get them to play the game for you via VNC.
Bert
Who has someone in India to run his lava lamp.
Roy better die in the movie. Its such a pivotal point.
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If Transformers showed one thing it's that computer graphics were created to render gigantic robot fights.
Read my Very Short "Stories"
Robotech, or the Japanese original Macross, is a very very sacred franchise... Just go look up the Robotech wikipedia and you'll learn that this thing is just as big if not bigger than the whole Gundam series which is still on going and is like the Apple ipod of Anime mecha series. My opinion? Don't mess around with this unless you've got your head screwed on real tight. This to the anime aficionados is like Star Wars. There is much at stake. If you've seen the Macross movie you'll understand why. So touching, so well done. The American version is really........a joke. I'm sorry, the songs "Star light, star bright" really didn't do the originals justice. The original franchise could have been grandiose if the corporations didn't get involved and muck it all up. (again, read wikipedia for more info). Sorry, ranting while inebriated. I just really hope that Mr. Toby doesn't think that he can cash in on transformers and screw around with this one. I for one, do not wish to see screwed up versions of my childhood toys/robots. Have you seen the transformers toys that are being sold now a days? I mean, honestly, are kids nowadays that retarded? I have nephews and the optimus prime they are playing with is a lot more simplified and retarded than what I had as a kid. Shoot, I would think we progress as the generations roll forward, not backwards. With brilliance in kids such as Geohot who can crack the iphone while still in high school I feel the marketing depts. in big corporate really need to be fired for taking two steps backwards. Anyways, enough of rant, I just realllllllly hope they do this movie justice. No, Robotech was a joke and melding 3 different animations was a stupid stupid AOL/time-warner merger style move. Just keep it simple and close to what the original storyline held and you'll win the love of fans/fanatics and newbies alike. Think Lord of The Rings and you'll win in Spades. And god, please don't dumb down the toys or change the valkyre.
I'm doubtful this will end up going anywhere. It's only in development, they don't have a script, it's Tobey's first real movie as a producer, and the guy they've brought on to do the writing is an unknown. Tobey just wants a sweet development paycheck-- after five years alternating between Brett Ratner and the Walchowski brothers to direct, and half-a-dozen "it" girls "attached" for Lynn Minmei, the project will die quietly, with Tobey $5 million richer.
On the other hand, he might get really attached to it and spend 10 years waiting for its moment to come, only to make a Robotech so intellectual and true-to-source that it ends up being slow and uninteresting ("Paging Gale Ann Hurd, The Hulk would like to see you!").
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
Maybe they can follow this up with a live action Urotsukidoji. I mean if they were able to bring The Story of Riki to the big screen live action style, I can't see why they can't do the same for tentacled demonic sex.
Uhh.. actually, it's the other way around.
Battletech, was actually the second version of the game. The orignal (which I still have a copy of) was called Battledroids. Both came after Robotech (well, actually after the japanese version - Macross), which itself was likely influenced by such shows as Battle of the planets, Star Blazers, and Voltron. (all of which are the American names for Japanese series, often totally unrelated to the storylines of the american versions)
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battletech
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Speaking as one who has played the Battletech boardgame and all of the Mechwarrior videogames as well as read many of the books in the series I have been wating for this franchise to be made into a movie for years. There is ample source material, lots of cool robots, and some very good story lines. I think it could make some great movies if handled right.
Nevermore.