Many were hoping that Pacific Rim would launch a giant Japanese robot trend, us included, but it wasn’t big enough of a hit to do this. Still, we’re not surprised to read a report that the robots of Gundam may in the works to come back.
Gundam was a cartoon that began back in 1979, where the giant robots have pilots in their heads, just like Pacific Rim. Gundam is wildly popular in the Orient, making tons of yen and even inspiring a theme park.
Now Giant Freakin Robot, appropriately enough, have run a story telling us that Gundam may be coming to the US. Apparently the Legacy Effects company is working on a project that will “bring Hollywood movies based on Japanese anime and magna titles to a global audience.”
If this indeed Gundam, it will be announced next week. Legacy is the company that gave us the incredible FX for Avatar, Iron Man, Pacific Rim, and many other top blockbusters. As Giant Robot tells us, the Japanese anime titles that are currently in development for big Hollywood movies include Gaiking, Star Blazers, Battle Angel, and at one point Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop were also in the works to be redone. (What, no Battle of the Planets? No Johnny Sako and his Flying Robot?)
With Transformers 4 coming this summer, we’ll be watching to see what other giant robot sagas could be going into production down the road. Transformers are still the big daddies of the genre, but we feel that even as big as these ‘bots are, there’s plenty room for more, especially with some cool anime flavor.
