It’s taken a long time for Sony’s live action Robotech movie to take flight on the big screen. Last we heard, the classic ’80s anime franchise was close to landing director James Wan, but now Robotech has a new man behind the camera: Andy Muschietti, the director of the highly anticipated It reboot. The Hollywood Reporter broke the story about Muschietti’s deal to direct and develop Robotech for the big screen. A screenwriter hasn’t been selected yet. Muschietti previously directed the horror film Mama and he is slated to helm the pilot episode of Locke & Key for Hulu.
When it first debuted in 1985, Robotech was actually a compilation of the three different anime series:Â Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada. Because each series was stylistically similar, Harmony Gold, the distributor that brought it to America, was able to create a narrative that linked the three previously unconnected shows. Essentially, the storyline begins when the technology for giant robots was reverse engineered from a crashed spaceship before the militaristic alien race known as the Zentraedi invaded. The second generation dealt with the Robotech Masters’ attempt to reclaim their tech, and the third generation chronicled the Invid invasion.
By far, the most popular era of Robotech is the first generation, which used Macross as its jumping off point. Rick Hunter, Lisa Hayes, Lynn Minmay, and the rest of the characters from that storyline are still the best known, and the SDF-1 Macross was an iconic transforming spacecraft that could put even the Transformers to shame.
In many ways, Robotech is tailor-made to become a series of feature films, assuming the audience comes out to see the first one. If the first movie is good (but hopefully great), we could potentially see several adventures with that group of characters before the timeline advances to the next generation. Hopefully Muschietti will also value clarity of action over CGI spectacle. It would be nice to actually see these mechs on the big screen without going in the direction that the Transformers went in.
There’s currently no date for Robotech to begin production, but we will be eagerly watching as this develops.
Are you excited to see Robotech on the big screen? Let us know in the comment section below!
Images: Harmony Gold/Titan Comics
