Popular anime Robetech was a hit in the 1980s, and it’s now being reimagined for the big screen by Sony.
Described as a sprawling sci-fi epic, Robotech takes place at a time when Earth has developed giant robots from the technology on an alien spacecraft that crashed on a South Pacific isle. Mankind is forced to use the technology to fend off three successive waves of alien invasions. The first invasion concerns a battle with a race of giant warriors who seek to retrieve their flagship’s energy source known as “protoculture,” and the planet’s survival ends up in the hands of two young pilots. That obviously has all the makings of a movie!
Now, Immortals and 300 franchise producers Gianni Nunnari and Mark Canton are developing Robotech with Michael Gordon (GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra) set to pen the screenplay. Sony are looking to increase the number of successful franchises they have, so are obviously hoping this will be the first in a series.
“‘Robotech’ is unique in that it has always been a marriage of spectacle with human characters that seem drawn from life,” Sony Pictures’ Michael De Luca said in a statement released to accompany the news. “That’s why we are so excited to be working with Mark and Gianni as we move forward on this project. With a history that offers an epic love triangle, a renegade hero, and a world on the brink of extinction, ‘Robotech’ offers a wide scope and a rich and impressive universe where the story possibilities are endless.”
“When the rights to ‘Robotech’ became available we jumped,” adds Nunnari. “Mark and I knew it had what big movies in today’s world must have if they want to grab everyone: insane visuals AND powerful themes. The characters in ‘Robotech’ wrestle with both the destructive and redemptive powers of technology; nothing is more relevant today than that.” When they put it like that, the movie does sound kind of fun!
