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Christopher McQuarrie to write Live Action STARBLAZERS movie! MAYBE NOT! Could be LUCASFILM!!!
Hey folks, Harry here
Just got back from 2 hours of work outs to a very trusted source that tells me that the rights on this are nowhere near resolved. Skydance is hard at work negotiating to get the rights, but at the same time - so is LUCASFILM and others. It seems people are finally waking up tot he inherent awesome that is STAR BLAZERS... I could totally see Lucasfilm doing some amazing things with this too. What do you folks think?
Hey folks, Harry here...
Ok - we've seen this announcement before here at AICN. About a decade ago, Disney was looking to make a live-action STAR BLAZERS movie... but they never really cracked it. Now, the company that co-financed with Paramount, the Coen Brothers' TRUE GRIT, has optioned and making with Paramount a live action STAR BLAZERS film to be written by Christopher McQuarrie... who has become a crazy busy screenwriter. Personally, I wish they'd just hire him to direct it too, as his brand of swagger would go a long way towards making it kick ass.
My problem with an American version of STAR BLAZERS is that... frankly, the new live action SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO - is what I want to have distribution and to play in theaters in this country with subtitles. I've heard again and again that it kicks untold ass. That said, if done right - it could be amazing. But it has to be done note perfect. Mike Fleming over at Deadline broke the story... but I just hope that it feels right.
We're beginning to get to an age of film in the post AVATAR time period where the big ambitious science fiction fun stuff can be done. Now if someone would just finance Fincher's HEAVY METAL project and GOON project - I would be a truly happy camper!
Readers Talkback
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Christopher McQuarrie to write Live Action STAR BLAZERS!!! 9 year old Harry just had his brain pop!
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yeah my brother lives in Japan and as longtime Star Blazers fan, he checked the film out..........for mild spoilers? a sequel would be, well, problematic. so i am all for a new big budget film of this with a hopefully more upbeat ending! ..darn Eastern sensibilities can get me down. he did however send me a magazine with many pix from it, and it looked fantastic.
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Along these same lines, anyone know the status of the Gatchaman CG film? I know IMAGI has closed their doors permanently after the lackluster performance of ASTRO BOY (which I kinda' liked... not perfect but a good try) but I wonder if anyone is going to take up this one. Much like Starblazers, if done right, G-Force would make one hell of a fun film.
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I know it wasn't perfect, and literally 9 people watched it, but I really enjoyed that shoe for what it was, especially since it started right after LOST ended. It helped fill the void for a few weeks. It also had a pretty sweet cliffhanger which I would have loved to have seen continue. It's too bad NBC sucks at everything involving marketing, viewership, consistency, or recognizing a good thing. Basically everything that involves, you know...television. But between Usual Suspects and PU, I think I will always be going out of my way to find out what McQuarrie is up to and watch it. His works seems worth it so far
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...was not brought here to the USA. If I had the bread I would bring it to my local art house in limited release and charge extra like the animation festivals do. I would make so much cash . . .
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But like Harry says, it needs to be near-perfection; the ship, the wave motion gun, Leader Desslok, Princess Invidia, Trelaina..
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...but I loved it anyway.
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Feb. 21, 2011, 1:29 p.m. CST
...I love the uniforms with the big red arrow pointing down at your pink parts.
by FlickaPoo
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We'd just been seeing pre-pre-production art and footage? What a crock.
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We want the SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO movie!!!
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Feb. 21, 2011, 1:37 p.m. CST
I'd pay money to watch American warplanes sink the Yamato again...
by BurnHollywood
...But that's it.
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POSSIBLE SPOILERS... I guess... although if you've seen the series, you know this stuff already... The Quest for Iscandar is what they should be looking to tell. It would be a tight fit. They need to include a section on the destruction of Gamilon's base on Pluto; and they must-must-must include General Lysis and the Battle at the Magellanic Cloud.<p> They, also, need to include the Starforce's destruction of Planet Gamilon. The ending could be very much like the series ended; as the Argo (or they could choose to call it the Yamato) approaches Earth the voiceover says they returned in time to save the planet.<p> It'll be all about tone and proper casting/directing. This has potential to be a great film; but I'm concerned it'll turn out like some silly emo-styled teen drama, from those brilliant creative forces at the CW "network".
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"Tahrgehting scohpe, open!"
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That holy trinity cannot be made into 2-hour-ish long Americanized movies without major concessions. Even the Japanese Evangelion 're-build' decided to toss out the balance of OVA content and head in a new, concise, direction. A CAPTAIN HARLOCK trilogy could be sweet, though.
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Watched the clip and wasn't too terribly interested by the end. I don't see how doing it "note perfect" would really benefit the film.
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I ain't even joking.
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Feb. 21, 2011, 1:49 p.m. CST
Seriously, what do we have to do to get proper stateside distribution of SBY going?
by WriteForTheEdit
I'd finance it myself, but I'm short of discretionary funds. Shy of that, I'm ready to volunteer my services. Whatever it takes. And by "whatever," I mean "WHATEVER (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)," you know what I'm saying?
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Bet on it.
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You can [not] run away.
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You are [not] a doll.
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Feb. 21, 2011, 1:54 p.m. CST
Honestly, I never watched the cartoons, or read the mangas, or whatever...
by WriteForTheEdit
...but fully wacked-out Japanese sci-fi just hits my pleasure centers like a Kat Dennings wet kiss.
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You do [not] want to die.
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piss off with your red state garbage. Where are a vast majority of movies written, shot, acted and directed in? The Bluest state of them all!!! How many red state movie makers get a shot to do anything with major studio backing?
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Oh mighty ginger one, Im sure you could somehow bring Yamato to Austin, hell I live in San Antonio I will make the drive and as a bonus I may be able to meet yall guys at Aint.end of line.
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"Now, the company that co-financed with Paramount, the Coen Brothers' TRUE GRIT, has optioned and making with Paramount a live action STAR BLAZERS film to be written by Christopher McQuarrie..." Perhaps it's intentional but this sentence reads like it was poorly translated from a Japanese television show. How about: "The companies that co-financed the Coen Brother's 'True Grit', Skydance Productions and Paramount, have optioned and will make a Starblazers film to be written by Christopher McQuarrie." Or: "Skydance Productions and Paramount (the financing and production partnership that brought us the Coen Brothers' 'True Grit'), have together optioned and will co-finance a Starblazers film to be written by Christopher McQuarrie" There's probably any number of ways to write this sentence, some of which are perhaps even more coherent than my quickly-written examples.
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Feb. 21, 2011, 2:42 p.m. CST
Would love to see a STAR BLAZERS: THE QUEST FOR ISCANDAR film
by SpyGuy
By all means, distribute the new SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO film here in the independent film theaters, but an American STAR BLAZERS film is the way to bring this property to the masses. Even with the introduction of anime into American culture, characters named Captain Avatar, Derek Wildstar, Mark Venture and Nova Forrester are going to be more appealing to than ones named Captain Okita, Susumu Kodai, Daisuke Shima and Yuki Mori.
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USS Pennsylvania - maybe?
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whilst cringing in horror as to what the American version might be... although, hey, the original dub (STAR BLAZERS) was pretty awesome.
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Feb. 21, 2011, 3:26 p.m. CST
If done right, an American version will be closer in tone to the original.
by godaikin73
I grew up on this Anime and am half Japanese myself, but I have to agree with spyguy on this one. The art style of the original series clearly had a multiracial, predominantly western crew. In that respect, I feel an American version at least has the potential to do the original more justice than this latest incarnation. Just my .02.
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Seems that the STAR BLAZERS rights are far from resolved. LUCASFILM is after them too!
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I like the sound of that...
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...with the "Skywalker" family crest embroidered above the left breast pocket. It's very, very awesome.
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Was boring as fuck. A ship doing nothing, a bunch of people talking to eachother from all over the ship, and a guy deciding to play time crisis at the end. I thought I might have been more interested if I understood the language, but then I watched it again just looking at the window of Japs watching it. They looked more bored than me, that one guy with the beard even sighed and rolled his fucking eyes. I like some anime, but damn near every anime is too long, melo-dramatic, about nothing other than the monster of the week, has fucking weird japanese fetishes and overtones, and has no business being adapted into an american movie unless it changed at its core. But at that point, why not just call it something different so you won't alienate the non-anime crowd and you won't infuriate the anime geeks.
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The ship was named The Argo in the American version.
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Feb. 21, 2011, 6:12 p.m. CST
Words cannot describe how anxious I am for the "Yamato" movie
by Playkins
An American remake, not so much.
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Feb. 21, 2011, 6:59 p.m. CST
I'M GOING TO START MY OWN NEWS SITE AND MAKE UP BIGGER AND BETTER RUMORS
by Missing Dink
And Harry, if you ever write "happy camper" again I'll find your testicles and punch them.
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POSSIBLE SPOILERS!! I was in Japan during Dec, and saw it 4 times....the end is not as problematic as you suggest. Remember what happened to ALEX Wildstar in the original series? Yeah, could be the same thing here....the whole bit is shown from a distance, and nothing is sure but the salvation of the planet. I agree with everyone else - a new American version is a stupid idea, when THE FILM ALREADY EXISTS!! and is likely better than anything any American company would crap out anyway.
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DOH!!
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I want the Japanese "Space Battleship Yamato" live-action movie brought over with faithful subtitles (to include full Japanese honorific usage). I absolutely want no part of anything "Star Blazers" even though I grew up with that version of the anime as an American cartoon. Now, if someone licenses this and decides to not make the American rewrite version of Yamato (Star Blazers) but do a proper live-action adaptation of the Space Battleship Yamato anime series, then I could go for that. The series could be made into a rather nice trilogy of movies.
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...did you spot Toshiyuki Nishida - he played PIGSY in the 1970's TV show 'Monkey'! What a ham. Joking. He was great in Monkey. And apparently a huge star in Japan to this day.
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Feb. 21, 2011, 7:16 p.m. CST
Does Harmony Gold still have the Robotech rights wrapped in limbo?
by Playkins
Because a live-action "Robotech" DEFINITELY needs to happen. ROBOTECH, NOT Macross. And it's not the same.
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Then I lost all interest.
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Feb. 21, 2011, 9:20 p.m. CST
Hope this ends up dying a slow, painful death along with the Akira film.
by elgato73
A Star Blazers film DOES NOT need to be made. A Japanese live action Space Battleship Yamato film already exists. This would be utterly redundant and would make no fucking sense. But as that GQ article pointed out, Hollywood has never made any sense. This is just like people wanting a Robotech film instead of a Macross film or a Battle of the Planets film instead of a Gatchaman film. Grow up. The American bastardizations of Yamato, Macross and Gatchaman are pathetic and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the reason Hollywood is constantly putting out absolute shit is because people will eat it up left and right. I just hope I never see the day when American bastardizations of Akira and Evangelion show up in the multiplex. But I'm afraid because of all the morons around here that visit this site and others and proclaim I want a ROBOTECH movie, not a MACROSS movie, this will not only come to pass, it will create a new market for Hollywood to pass off more shit to us. Fuck you playkins and you're entire fucking fanboy ilk.
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Make it so.
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...WTF?!
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Where's my goddamn official release of "Macross: Do You Remember Love?" ?!?!? Harmony Gold can suck it. (But, truthfully, I LOVED Robotech as a kid, back when it first aired. Was obsessed with it, really. Then I found out what they did to it... sigh... ) I still remember tracking down a VHS bootleg of Macross: DYRL back in the 80s, around the time Robotech was still in it's initial run ('85 or '86?), or maybe a wee lil bit after, and just watching it over and over and over again.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La4z3pZ1O00
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Who the hell is Tommy Yune, and why does this douche hate him so much?
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Give me a live action Gundam now damn it!
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get it right. The Japanese movie was half assed - seriously as in Sony's Godzilla and the Star Wars Prequels Half Assed, well Godzilla was full assed, but enough about asses. Want my buy in? Give me an international crew as in the fighter pilots, the Marines, Yuki and load that ship up with more than 15 people, I want 2 fighter squadrons (36 fighters) instead of the five or six fighters, 2 Marine platoons...and give me flesh and blood Gamilons not some generic silver baddies and blue Abyss rejects...and an ending closer to the series puhlease.....this is Earth's last hope, shit the Galactica was better off in damn near every way....
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You've seen it? It's bad? I don't like the changes you've described, but I still really wanna see it (even if it is just Space Cruiser Galactica).
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Feb. 22, 2011, 8:12 a.m. CST
Btw, The Original Yamato Crew Was Definitely All Japanese
by NeonFrisbee
I'm talking about from the anime. BUT, I don't think the transition to an international crew would be that tough to swallow. I would accept that and be fine with it. Something like AKIRA, though? That HAS to be ALL Japanese and set in Japan.
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Feb. 22, 2011, 11:05 a.m. CST
Project: London looks like an incredibly shite waste of awesome, epic, amazing special effects
by Smack_Teddy
Space Battleship Yamato just looks awesome
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Feb. 22, 2011, 12:19 p.m. CST
We don't need a live action Starblazers, we need
by Grammaton Cleric Binks
SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO released in the US.
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Feb. 22, 2011, 12:30 p.m. CST
hmm, it's only fitting that Lucasarts would help to release a Star Blazers film
by Stalkeye
being as how some ideas from Yamato were borrowed by Georgie.I'm sure that an American version would do the japanese counterpart justice.
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Seriously, Gundam hasn't been cool since Stardust Memory, and the CGI OVAs were OK at best but I'd rather see a Robotech (the late Carl Macek's concept and NOT Macross.) based film than Gundam.
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Make it happen.
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Yep, the first half of the movie had promise, then a Gamilon fighter is captured and it goes down hill from there as the aliens aren't "Flesh & Blood" but energy of some sort...don't know why energy would need battlecruisers/spacecarft and such, but hey what do I know? And yeah there were six space Marines, just as many fighter craft and it seemed like there were only a few people on the crew...I didn't get a sense of scale considering that the original Battleship had a crew of 2,500-2,800....I'm hoping that whomever gets it gets it done right....
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the main players could be all Japanese, but some of the supporting personnel, Marines, fighter pilots, etc could be "international"....
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Feb. 22, 2011, 3:29 p.m. CST
George Lucas Ripped-Off Yamato/Star Blazers With Star Wars...
by Media Messiah
...thus, Lucas Film's interest here is deeply suspect. All they wish to do is lock-up the rights to Yamato/Star Blazers in order to prevent a western live action version from being made, and or, they wish to screw it up, ala the way one of Lucas' insiders did with Battlefield Earth (as its director)--this, in order to protect Star Wars from a similar, and competing, franchise. It is about killing the competition, by buying the competition. I have been telling you all for years, that Yamato/Star Blazers was at the center of a lawsuit between Lucas Film, and Glen Larson. George Lucas accused Larson of ripping-off Star Wars with Battlestar Galactica, however, Larson countered, with claims that both he and George Lucas...ripped-off Yamato/Star Blazers to create Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica. Larson even brought in the creator of Yamato/Star Blazers to testify against Lucas on his behalf. When asked why he just didn't sue both Lucas and Larson, he said it was against the Japanese honor code for him to sue for plagiarism, but he would testify for Larson. Further, in the story that I read about all this, an old out of print magazine, the name I do not recall, they alleged that Lucas was observed in Japan, circa 1974, viewing anime movies/tv series like Yamato/Star Blazers. The special effects design, production design, even the look of the Empire officers' uniforms, look like that of Yamato/Star Blazers, the latter appearing like the villains which the Star Force was facing. The Deathstar a straight rip of the Comet Empire, the zero-g space fighter dog fights--like X-Wing/Tie Fighter battles, the laser weapons effects, the pistol designs versus blasters, the planet destroying wave motion gun, like the planet killing death ray of the Deathstar, and of course, the smiling ghosts of the dead heroes, at the conclusion of the story, just like Return of The Jedi, and yet, Yamato/Star Blazers was first--years before Star Wars. Knowing these facts should inform all who are observing this situation, that Lucas has an agenda here, and it isn't good, with concern to Yamato/Star Blazers. Lucas only wishes to make sure that any westernized live-action version will not be in a position to threaten the future of Star Wars in any way, even if he has to option its rights, in order to undermine it, and shut it down. This isn't a white knight situation, on the part of Lucas and company, it, rather, is more like a hostile take-over attempt, and that isn't good for the future of any American produced live-action version of Yamato/Star Blazers. Lastly, should Lucas obtain the option rights, it places him in the position to manage the story and limit any negative fall-out should the media start asking questions about which came first, the chicken, or the egg, in regard to Yamato/Star Blazers and Star Wars. This is all damage control.
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...as well as Yamato/Star Blazers and Robotech. G-Force, although not as accomplished, was also cool!!!!
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. . . and McQuarrie or whoever the f&%k in Hollyweird thinks they can do justice to Space Battleship Yamato (the real name, yes?). Time for honesty already: from the time of "Return of the Jedi" to that last Darth yelling and breaking glassfills of fluids, just tell yourself, Lucas has just not managed to deliver. I say, Japan, in all its ownership of Hollyweird take the gloves off, unsheath the proverbial katana and do an aggressive buyout of all Lucas properties (they can do it and still have a big chunk of change left). Do their own SW trilogy, all in Japanese language, filled with Bushido-ness and Yakuza-ness in the great tradition of Kurosawa, Fukasaku, all the greats. Would be a great, finally, "Star Wars" trilogy. Man. Glad I grew up with "Star Wars" alongside "Kikaida," "Kamen Rider," "Akumiza 3," "J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai," "Battle Fever," yep, all the tokusatsu and sentai greats. Was able to compare just how lame Hollyweird can be in their own sci-fi, etc. Sorry if you didn't get the same opportunity.
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