It just
isn’t safe anymore. It’s not safe to make a joke about a videogame, however
shitty and obscure, becoming a motion picture. Same goes for whatever cheesy
cartoons you watched as a young’un. Hollywood these days don’t give a fuck,
son. They will adapt that shit in a second. I half-jokingly noted in an article
about the upcoming Voltron movie that Robotech was a more “adult” and cinematic
property. It is, strictly-speaking, in that it was a serial show with winding
plotlines and the occasional major character death. Those things aside, though,
it’s still just a “giant transforming vehicles blowing shit up”-type of story,
and however hallowed you hold the sprawling, ambitious storytelling, I’ll raise
you anything Minmei-related and take the pot right now, thank you. Plus, the
larger storyline of Earth being under attack from mean aliens with only a few spare
ships/groups of rebels left to fight has been done and done again.
That won’t
stop Warner Bros., who just picked up the property for the bigscreen. They’re
working with Tobey Maguire, who is producing through his Maguire Entertainment
shingle and thinking about jumping in “a” lead role (The dashing Rick Hunter?
The decaying Roy Fokker? The cool-ass Admiral?!). You can’t blame them as every
studio wants a giant robot/vehicle film in light of Transformers (still
available: Gobots, Shogun Warriors, M.A.S.K.),
and there is a fairly vast universe and mythology due to the endless iterations
and offshoot Robotech TV shows and movies. But how much of that is going to
make it to the screen?
Also, will
Justin Marks have time on his lunch break to churn out a script?