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THR: Live-Action Robotech Project Signs Furious 7 Director James Wan
posted on by Egan Loo
The Hollywood Reporter entertainment news source is reporting on Wednesday that James Wan "has closed the deal" with Sony to direct its planned live-action Robotech film. In addition to co-creating and directing the first Saw film, Wan directed The Conjuring film and Furious 7, the top-grossing film worldwide in 2015 so far.
Wan is already attached to film The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist this fall, and Warner announced on Wednesday that Wan has closed the deal to develop and direct Aquaman. The Hollywood Reporter indicates that Aquaman will be Wan's first project after The Conjuring 2, and Warner has scheduled Aquaman for 2018.
Robotech was Harmony Gold's edited and rewritten 1985 adaptation of three separate anime science-fiction series: The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada. The producers have yet to announce which, if any, of the three anime that the proposed live-action project will most follow, or how it will deal with the copyright dispute between Harmony Gold's partner Tatsunoko Production and the creators of Macross (the most popular of the three anime).
The Deadline website reported in February that the "Hollywood Gang" producers Gianni Nunnari and Mark Canton (300, The Immortals) had hired Michael Gordon (300 screenplay, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra story) to write the script. Variety reported that Sony Pictures Entertainment Group President Doug Belgrad, Columbia Pictures Production Chief Michael De Luca, and Sony Pictures Vice President of Creative Production Matthew Milam would oversee the project. The executive producers include Harmony Gold founder Frank Agrama, Gordon, and Jehan Agrama.
The proposed live-action film project was first announced in 2007 with actor Toby Maguire involved at Warner Brothers. In 2008, Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back) was attached to the project as scriptwriter, with Charles Roven (Afro Samurai, The Dark Knight and Akiva Goldsman joining as producers. In 2009, British TV writer Tom Rob Smith was slated to write the film's story. In the same year, Roven backed out of the project for undisclosed reasons and is now producing the Aquaman film. (Kasdan is now involved in the upcoming Star Wars film projects.) In 2013, Warner Bros. was in talks to hire director Nic Mathieu to helm Robotech.
The Robotech franchise has inspired several American projects such as the Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles sequel project (pictured above). ADV Films and A&E Networks Home Entertainment released the 1985 series on DVD in North America. Harmony Gold launched a Kickstarter campaign for a Robotech Academy pilot last July, which was eventually cancelled.
