News
Sony Pictures Acquire Live-Action Robotech Film Rights
posted on by Egan Loo
The entertainment trade news source Variety reported on Wednesday that Sony Pictures has acquired the live-action film rights to the Robotech property, and "views the project as a potential film franchise."
The Deadline website reported in February that the "Hollywood Gang" producers Gianni Nunnari and Mark Canton (300, The Immortals) had hired Michael Gordon (300 screenplay, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra story) to write the script. Variety reports that Sony Pictures Entertainment Group President Doug Belgrad, Columbia Pictures Production Chief Michael De Luca, and Sony Pictures Vice President of Creative Production Matthew Milam will oversee the project. The executive producers include Harmony Gold founder Frank Agrama, Gordon, and Jehan Agrama.
Robotech was Harmony Gold's edited and rewritten 1985 adaptation of three separate anime science-fiction series: The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada. The producers have yet to announce which, if any, of the three anime that the proposed live-action project will most follow, or how it will deal with the copyright dispute between Harmony Gold's partner Tatsunoko Production and the creators of Macross (the most popular of the three anime).
The proposed live-action film was first announced in 2007 with actor Toby Maguire involved at Warner Brothers. In 2008, Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back) was attached to the project as scriptwriter, with Charles Roven (Afro Samurai, The Dark Knight and Akive Goldsman joining as producers. In 2009, British TV writer Tom Rob Smith was slated to write the film's story. In the same year, Roven backed out of the project for undisclosed reasons. In 2013, Warner Bros. was in talks to hire director Nic Mathieu to helm the film.
The adaptation has inspired several American projects such as the Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles sequel project (pictured above). ADV Films and A&E Networks Home Entertainment released the 1985 series on DVD in North America. Harmony Gold launched a Kickstarter campaign for a Robotech Academy pilot last July, which was eventually cancelled.
Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the news tip
[Via Deb Aoki]
