In the eighties, there was an animated series brought to Japan for American audiences known as Robotech. The show really helped establish the culture of anime that is still very strong today, and there is word that Sony intends to make a live-action version of this epic science-fiction series.
According to The Geek Church, this is not the first time that Robotech has been considered for a live-action movie. The last time was during a Kickstarter project called Robotech Academy, but it only achieved less than $200,000 of its $500,000 goal. Since then, that crowdfunding project has been cancelled, but Sony is planning to make a live-action movie, and more than one of them.
If you are not familiar with Robotech, it was actually a three-part story within its eighty episodes, but the gag is that these individual sagas were originally three separate series that were never meant to be tied to each other. Yes, the editors managed to cut-and-paste three different stories into one. According to Ubergizmo, the three series were The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA.
As far as the American versions got, there was first Robotech, The Macross Saga, about a young tyro pilot named Rick Hunter and a city-sized starship called The Macross. Then there was Robotech Masters, a show about a group of mech warriors trying to stop an alien invasion. Then there was Robotech: The Next Generation, which took place after another group of aliens known as the Invid invaded, with action focusing on a small band of survivors in a more post-apocalyptic setting.
As you can see, there is a lot of material to make a film franchise, several of them. I'm going to bet that Sony will want to focus on The Macross Saga, because not only is it the first, but it was often the one most promoted. It was the one with jets that could transform into robots, not to mention aliens seven times the size of humans, as well as a strong lead character in the midst of a love triangle. Macross was certainly the poster-child for Robotech, and it has enough material to overflow a film trilogy.
Maybe there is a long-term plan for Robotech, like Marvel is doing with its films. It will be produced by Gianni Nunnari and Mark Canton, who did the film Immortals and 300. Michael Gordon is also working on the screenplay. Engadget reported back in 2007 that Tobey Maguire was planning on producing and possibly staring in a Robotech movie, but that obviously didn't work.
As someone who was a huge fan of Robotech back when Harmony Gold brought it to America in the eighties, I am very interested in seeing a film version which would have to have the budget and epic scale of a film like Avatar. Either Sony will really make this franchise shine, or do what M. Night Shyamalan did to Avatar (The Last Airbender one).
