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Robotech Heading to Big Screen, Starring Toby Maguire
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Sun Sep 09, 2007 09:33 AM
from the but-who-will-ruin-it-by-playing-minmay dept.
from the but-who-will-ruin-it-by-playing-minmay dept.
dominique_cimafranca writes "Classic anime cult favorite "Robotech" may be next for the big screen live action treatment, if recent news from SciFi.com's SCI FI Wire is to be believed. Tobey Maguire will produce and may star in the film. The article says 'Warner Brothers Pictures picked up the rights to Robotech, which features giant robots known as mechas. Maguire is producing through his Maguire Entertainment banner and is eyeing the lead role in what the studio plans as an SF franchise a la Paramount's hit Transformers.'" I wonder if they'll go back to the Macross source material when plotting the movie... there's a lot more good substance there then in our version.
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GoBots coming to live action... (Score:2, Funny)
As long as he doesn't f-it up along the lines of Spiderman III. Of course, Transformers mostly sucked too. Maybe the higher-level storyline in Robotech will allow for a better movie? Go go Hollywood crap pump!
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[...]then have blurry, confusing fight scenes which make it really hard to figure out who's fighting who and what the hell's happening?
Transformers is hardly the only culprit here. The "handycam perspective" has been destroying films for years now.
I used to think it was done just so the director could cheap out on the choreography (after all, it doesn't have to be good when the audience can barely see what's happening), but they're so prevalent now, even in big-budget films, that I can only conclude tha
Overfiend coming to live action... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
I don't think it'll be the original version. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I don't think it'll be the original version. (Score:5, Informative)
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Battletech, was actually the second version of the game. The orignal (which I still have a copy of) was called Battledroids. Both came after Robotech (well, actually after the japanese version - Macross), which itself was likely influenced by such shows as Battle of the planets, Star Blazers, and Voltron. (all of which are the American names for Japanese series, often totally unrelated to the storylines of the american versions)
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat [wikipedia.org]
Yeah, honestly. (Score:5, Insightful)
Ever.
Posing the question is tantamount to trolling on the front page.
Parent
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How is that any different than the vast majority of any Hollywood produced films based upon any previously written storyline? They always change the ending and fuck up a good bit of the story along the way and it's part of why wa
More info leaked (Score:2, Funny)
As big an RT fan as I am... (Score:4, Insightful)
OOOH! AHHG! YES!
But another part of me is wondering how well this is going to translate into live action. And whether or not it's going to wind up stepping all over the beloved (though flawed) series that introduced so many people to anime.
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Re:As big an RT fan as I am... (Score:5, Interesting)
One thing that they absolutely need: an orchestra.
One thing they can do without in a movie, but which was crucial to the series: a narrator.
I almost want to say the first arc could be made into a trilogy by itself. The discovery, development, training, the first fold, being lost, death, first contact(s), spies, micronization, destruction, reconstruction, more destruction, etc are going to be hard to squeeze into a single movie, even if it turns into "Dances with Bretai" and is 3 hours long. The main problem I had with The Sentinels was that we were introduced to a whole new alien race, find out they are bad, and see them defeated in the span of 90 minutes. While I'm sure part of it is latent Comic Book Guy "It was better when I was 8 years old" feelings, I'm pretty sure they would have taken 5 episodes of introduction and explanation for me to care that anything happened to them.
For some reason, when thinking about the Mospedia chapter, I keep thinking of the danger room from X-Men III. Mostly, the scrapyards.
Parent
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Oh, you said 3 movies for each chapter... nevermind.
flaws are good (Score:2)
Take Red Dwarf. The first three series were filmed on cheap sets, with minimal budgets, and, well, the props were mostly crap. And yet the result was pure gold. Never before had I encountered something so funny that I almost pissed myself laughing.
The problem arise when people with big budgets try to recapture that, it never seems to work. In the case of Red Dwarf the final three series were well funded, had lots of resources, and the result was at be
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Part of me is going:
OOOH! AHHG! YES!
But another part of me is wondering how well this is going to translate into live action. And whether or not it's going to wind up stepping all over the beloved (though flawed) series that introduced so many people to anime.
I'm going to spoil it for you: this movie's gonna go down like slugs on toast. There's no way it's going to be good from an objective point of view. There's also no way it will be subjectively as good, either. I was a kid when I first encountered Robotech. I encountered it when I was like nine or ten. It appealed to me at first because it was animated and had transforming robots. But once I got into the story, holy shit. Love, loss, death, consequences, this was not just some Transformers knock-off. Why di
This is heresy! (Score:5, Funny)
Videogame Attract Mode (Score:2, Offtopic)
What I want is PS3 videogames that have a long, detailed "attract mode" [wikipedia.org]: a script that runs the game through its paces. Once someone has "solved" these games, there isn't any reason that a script showing how it's played through shouldn't be available. I'd love to leave my big screen TV set play
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Bert
Who has someone in India to run his lava lamp.
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MAME? (Score:2)
Angband borg screensaver (Score:2)
plural (Score:4, Informative)
Besides that, a Robotech live-action with today's 3D animation will absolutely rock! It'd be hard to pack into 2 hours, but I'd like to see some of the 2nd and 3rd Robotech series (and/or Macross Plus) mecha involved, since they look so cool.
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The Source Material (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, with Warner Bros. in the fray now, they might actually work out the IP rights, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
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Macross source (Score:4, Interesting)
A number of "Robotech" movies were planned, all canceled. This is one of those cases where I feel the fans suffered by a company holding onto to their intellectual property far too long without actually using it.
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Robotech, meanwhile, had a sequel in The Sentinels, but it died. Nothing
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There have actually been a number of follow-ups to Macross (though it's no MS Gundam). There was Macross: Do You Remember Love (basically the movie version of the show), Macross II (which no one liked, and isn't considered in-canon, IIRC), Macross Plus, Macross 7, and the prequel, Macross Zero. And some little things like Flashback 2012. Personally, I'd suggest watching Macross Plus and Macross Zero. The others aren't really that good.
Yes, there were follow-ups to Macross, but not really for Robotech with apparently "The Sentinels" which was canned as a series and reworked into film length. But again that was 20 years ago. There were some ideas slated for Robotech not nothing ever completed.
To me more clear, Macross is a different animal to Robotech. Macross centered around the idea that culture is the most powerful force. This is even apparent in Macross 7. Macross Plus while released in English isn't really apart of Robotech.
Most
Interviewing Harmony Gold rep tonight (Score:4, Informative)
But a movie is only a couple of hours (Score:2)
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I think it'll be the beginning of the story, when the SDF1 crashed the Earth, and the first Zentraedi attacks. My prediction is that it'll end up in a strategic victory (i.e. Earth isn't destroyed... for now) in the middle of the storyline, of course, AFTER the SDF1 is teleported to Pluto.
Since when ... (Score:2)
It's clearly a clone of Transformers, which was about as shit as you get. So what? Someone decides to copy it because they can't think of anything better?
Is it just me (Score:2)
But god damn it his voice is pissing me off. I'll be ok if he stars in this movie as long as he doesn't speak.
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keep it real (Score:3, Insightful)
Bring it on! (Score:3, Insightful)
Tread carefully... (Score:5, Interesting)
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They were knights (the game was loosely medieval-themed) and yeah you're right [gamerflicks.com] there is supposed to be a movie. Weird. Paramount is looking at it, the article says.
Still, once Paramount passes on the idea and they can't find another major production house to pick it up, it'll probably go direct-to-DVD. Maybe kill off an evening with it that way.
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At the top of my head:
Macross Saga
Zhang Ziyi as Lynn Minmei
Jennifer Aniston as Lisa Hayes
Yup. I agree. Owen Wilson as Roy Fokker
Topher Grace as Max Sterling
Claudia Grant? Halle Berry!
And if ever...
Robotech Masters
Claire Danes as Dana Sterling
Wilmer Valderrama as Bowie
Keanu Reeves as Zor
Robotech Invid
Matt Damon as Scott Bernard
Orlando Bloom as Lancer (aka Yellow dancer)
Reese Witherspoon as Rook Bartley
That's all I can think of now...
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Zhang Ziyi as Lynn Minmei
God you're high. Unless Minmei gets to kick some ass... nahhh. Of course, I'm in favor of Zhang Ziyi (sp?) in anything, but this doesn't look like a movie for her... wait, Miriya. Yeah, cast ZZ as Miriya. That would add the distinctive flavor of awesome to the film. And, if memory serves, we'd get to see ZZ painted green.
Yup. I agree. Owen Wilson as Roy Fokker
Ok. He's got enough experience now that he can probably carry a leadership/mentor role. In the movie
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Toby as Minmei (Score:4, Interesting)
You seem to have misunderstood the story. Your objection to Toby is made moot by your closing statement.
You see, Toby will be playing Minmei...
Parent
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I'm doubtful this will end up going anywhere. It's only in development, they don't have a script, it's Tobey's first real movie as a producer, and the guy they've brought on to do the writing is an unknown. Tobey just wants a sweet development paycheck-- after five years alternating between Brett Ratner and the Walchowski brothers to direct, and half-a-dozen "it" girls "attached" for Lynn Minmei, the project will die quietly, with Tobey $5 million richer.
On the other hand, he might get really attached to