In early October, during the Providence Anime Conference, a number of anime industry sources, including Kevin McKeever of Harmony Gold (Robotech), FUNimation's Senior Events Manager Adam Sheehan, and ADV Films' David Williams made the point that in the wake of Transformer's success, Hollywood was looking to scoop up as much giant robot IP as possible, and anime producers were looking to license every colorful machine in their vault. Reportedly, the channel was strong enough to scuttle attempts by North American anime distributors to license giant robot anime.
Well, it looks like the giant robot wars have heated up.
According to Anime News Network, World Events Productions (WEP) attempted to serve Toei Animation with a law suit concerning the live action adaptation of Voltron on Monday.
While Toei produced Hyakujuu Ou Golion (King of Beasts Golion), the anime localized as "lion" Voltron and Kikou Kantai Dairugger XV (Mechanized Fleet Dairugger XV), localized as "vehicle" Voltron, Koplar Communications licensed the rights to that original anime and produced the Volton localization.
The relationship between Kopar and Toei went to the courts in 1999 when Koplar's WEP production company created the CG Voltron: The Third Dimension, leading to new agreements between the companies in 2000 , and future head-aches trying to suss out who had the rights to what.
For more on the dispute between Kopar/WEP and Toei that ensued following Variety's report concerning the Voltron live action, check out Anime News Network's blow by blow here.
My speculation is that there will be more of these complex rights entanglements as other giant robots stomp towards the big screen, if for no other reason tha few had this sort of situation in mind when the agreements were drafted to bring classic mecha anime onto an international stage.
