Just in case the studios weren’t rebooting enough ‘80s properties for you, Sony has bought up the rights to ROBOTECH with plans to develop it into a feature film franchise.
The flick was previously going to be a Tobey Maguire/Akiva Goldsman production over at Warner Bros., but producers Gianni Nunnari and Mark Canton (300, IMMORTALS) brought the project to Sony when the rights lapsed. They got 300/G.I. JOE: RISE OF COBRA screenwriter (and Canton’s former assistant) Michael Gordon hammering out a script for the adaptation, which will apparently capitalize on “a history that offers an epic love triangle, a renegade hero, and a world on the brink of extinction”, according to Mike De Luca.
ROBOTECH has kind of a weird history: the original 1985 series was actually adapted from three unrelated Japanese series, SUPER DIMENTION FORTRESS MACROSS, SUPER DIMENSION CAVALRY SOUTHERN CROSS, and GENESIS CLIMBER MOSPEADA. Cannon distributed a movie in ’86, and there have been an abundance of toys, comics, video games, and reruns of the original series in the years since. The idea this time around is to kickstart a new interest in the franchise, TRANSFORMERS style, leading to another, hopefully wider slew of ancillary products and projects.
I’d be curious as to what specifically attracted Canton, Nunnari, and Sony to this project. Was it the nostalgia factor? Did they think the marketplace needs another franchise about humans fighting off an invading alien force? Are they really big anime fans? Or do they have, as De Luca implies, a genuine interest in furthering the original story?
Regardless, only time will tell whether this incarnation of ROBOTECH gets off the ground after almost a decade of failed attempts. I'm sure with the right script, the right director, and the right budget, Sony can make a badass, big-budget sci-fi/action flick out of this property. The question is, how badly do you guys want this?
