After the success of Transformers, similar giant robot stories from the same category went into development to become movies, including Voltron and Robotech.
While we haven’t heard much about Voltron lately, there is definite movement going on with the Robotech film, in fact it just clinched a director.
Like a lot of big, explosive action films, Robotech’s going to go with a newcomer from the world of commercials, and as the Hollywood Reporter tells us, the director will be Nic Mathieu. Mathieu has directed a number of commercials, yet has never filmed a feature before, but Warner Brothers is definitely behind him. He’s also up to direct a movie called The Wind, written by Jurassic Park screenwriter David Keopp.
Robotech is one of those Japanese anime series with a herky-jerky style of animation because it didn’t animate every frame. (Think Battle of the Planets, or a much worse example, Pokemon.) Eventually this became its own admired style of animation, but at the time the purists didn’t like it because they felt it was cheating if you didn’t animate every frame.
Robotech was also the result of reediting and redubbing three separate anime shows into one for American audiences. In Robotech, giant robots have to defend us from alien invasions. Eventually two young pilots must help defend the earth, with a lot of robotic help of course.
Robotech has been in development at Warner Brothers since 2007, and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind, Batman and Robin), and Tobey Maguire are onboard as producers.
Quite a few writers have taken passes at the script, but Mathieu is the first director on board to bring ‘Tech to the screen. When you look at his commercial work, he clearly knows his stuff when it comes to working in CG, and could indeed be a great choice to bring Robotech alive.
