Lawrence Kasdan to write Robotech movie
More than nine months after Warner Bros. acquired the rights to Robotech, the big-screen adaptation of the anime classic has a new writer: heavy hitter Lawrence Kasdan, who’s responsible for such screenplays as Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Craig Zahler originally was tapped to pen the adaptation.
So, yeah, Lawrence Kasdan. That’s the good news. Now for the not-so-good news: Akiva Goldsman is coming aboard as a producer, along with Chuck Roven. They join Tobey Maguire and Drew Crevello.
Produced by Harmony Gold USA and Tatsunoko Prods., the 1980s anime aired in the United States as a daily syndicated series. Robotech was adapted from three different mecha series: The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada.
Robotech takes place on a futuristic Earth, where mankind has used technology salvaged from a crashed alien spacecraft to create giant robots — which it then uses to battle alien invaders.
Frank Agrama of Harmony Gold, which holds the rights to Robotech, will serve as an executive producer.
Robert Downey Jr. to star in Cowboys & Aliens
Robert Downey Jr. is in negotiations to star in DreamWorks/Universal’s Cowboys & Aliens, based on the Platinum Studios graphic novel by by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley, from an idea by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg.
The pulpy sci fi-Western centers on a battle between the Apache and frontier settlers that is interrupted by a crashing spaceship. Downey will play Zeke Jackson, an ex-Union Army gunslinger.
On a related note, EW.com’s Hollywood Insider reports that Downey is also eyeing Warner Bros.’ Sherlock Holmes update, based on a forthcoming comic by Lionel Wigram. Guy Ritchie is set to direct.
The Ticker
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• There’s a new edition of The Gotham Times — a marketing device for Batman: The Dark Knight – sporting headlines “Batman: Savior or Menace?” and “Emergency Rooms Close As Fear Toxin Cases Rise.” [The Gotham Times]
• British actor Freddie Highmore will use an American accent when he voices the title character in the upcoming adaptation of Astro Boy. [Sci Fi Wire]
• Wanted star James McAvoy says that, despite Internet rumors to the contrary, he’s not in the running to play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit movies. [Collider]
June 16th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Wait, so Downey is close to signing on to star in a 2010 tentpole? Umm, isn’t Iron Man II supposed to be a 1020 tentpole flick, too? Not that he couldn’t film one after the other, but it does lead credence to the rumors that Marvel and the original Iron Man team haven’t worked up how they’re going to get the sequel made in the timeframe Marvel’s established. Sounds like Downey’s staying busy in the meantime.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Didn’t I say it already … the Hulk being the villain of Avengers …
June 16th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
I can´t wait for Robotech to happend!
June 16th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Kasdan is a great writer, but Maguire and co. have opted for the What’s Up, Tiger Lily? route to feed their machine. Can you say Western hegemony? Robotech is outright creative and capital theft on the part of Harmony Gold and Carl Macek, whitewashing (i.e. Anglicizing the lead characters) the original storylines then passing off the work as their own. But then again, for Hollywood to honor the original, that would require the studios to place non-white leads in the roles. When was the last time you saw an Asian lead, male or female, in an English-speaking role saving the human race in a Hollywood film? When I attended the comiccon panel led by the Harmony Gold president, I pressed him for an answer to the following question: “Will Robotech have a multiracial cast?”. He dodged the question, replying, instead, that “Robotech will be a big-budget film produced and starring Tobey Maguire.” (Thankfully, for Macross fans out there, current legal issues prohibit Harmony Gold from using the original series’ storyline. Which (hopefully) should mean that we won’t be seeing Maguire & co. inhabiting any of the roles belonging to the original Japanese characters of Macross anytime soon. But then again we’re talking about the power of Haolewood here, and given its current interest in whitewashing all things Asian Horror and action (The Grudge, The Departed), we may still have reason to fear the inevitable.)
June 17th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Hikaru, to be fair, even a straight-up Macross movie would be a fairly diverse cast. Hikaru of course would be Japanese, as would seeming Misa, but Roy Fokker and Claudia LaSalle would not be. And to some degree, character heritage aside, as is true in a lot of anime, the character designs of Misa and Hikaru are not identifiably Asian – if one were to go for actors who looked somewhat like they did in the animation, it would be tough.
Personally I’m happy to let them do some straight up live action Robotech with one of their original Robotech stories and stay as far away as possible from anything related to the actual Macross storyline or characters.
Somehow I suspect they are going to be trying to do the actual Macross story (or at least the Robotech version of it), since it is still the classic story (and if they’re going for the nostalgia factor, it’s what a lot of people think of when they think of Robotech).
In that case, the most I can hope for is some nice CGI Valkyrie action (if they had any class, they’d enlist Shoji Kawamori to help with mecha design for this, but I’m not holding my breath).
June 18th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Oh stop playing the wounded fanboy Rick, er, sorry, Hikaru.
I live in Japan, and I can tell you that on average the Japanese would rather see a big hollywood version staring famous white people than an authentic all Japanese version.
The people I have spoken to are excited about the DBZ movie.
You really don’t have to be offended for them.