This was a few months ago now, but Kotaku published a look at some of the concept art created in 2018 for the abandoned live-action movie version of Robotech. The original source was concept artist Col Price, who has also worked on video game series like WipeOut and Battlefield.
The artwork is mostly faithful to the original concept and premise. In the original 1985 Robotech - itself derived from the 1982 Japanese anime Macross - a massive alien spacecraft crashlands on an island in the South Pacific. The world, which is on the verge of a catastrophic war, agrees to together to explore the alien spacecraft. They then decide to rebuild it, and use the technology they loot from the remains to build a whole new military to defend the planet in case the aliens come looking for their missing ship. Over the course an entire settlement of over 70,000 people, Macross City, springs up to support the reconstruction effort.
Ten years later, the worst-case scenario comes true and thousands of alien ships belonging to the Zentraedi - towering forty-foot humanoids - enter our Solar system to recover the ship, which by now has been renamed the SDF-1 (Superdimensional Fortress One). The SDF-1 and the Robotech Defence Force mount a ferocious defence of the planet, with the SDF-1 crew planning to hyperjump the ship behind the alien fleet and destroy it in a flanking maneuver. Unfortunately, they don't fully understand how the hyperjump works and end up warping themselves and all of Macross City to the orbit of Pluto. The hyperjump system vanishes in transit, forcing them to recover survivors from the (fortunately airtight) shelters and return to Earth under normal engine power, which takes almost three years. Fortunately, the alien fleet ignores Earth to track down the SDF-1, resulting in pitched battles at Saturn and Mars.
The concept art is from the earliest part of the story, after the SDF-1 has crashed on Earth and the fortress is being rebuilt by humanity. This section is skimmed over in the original source material, which has a series of slides and a voiceover explaining what happened in the interim. However, Japanese prequel series Macross Zero explores this period in more detail.
This version of the movie was never made, as James Wan decamped to make Aquaman. Andy Muschietti (IT: Chapter One and Chapter Two) stepped in to develop a different version of the film but he ultimately left as well. In 2022 it was confirmed that Rhys Thomas (Hawkeye) was developing yet another version for the screen.
It has to be said this concept art is extremely impressive, even though this iteration of the script (which reportedly was more of a generic SF flick with the Zentraedi just attacking Earth and the rebuilt SDF-1 defending against them) barely bore any resemblance to the original story outside of the premise, so from that point of view it's probably a good thing the project did not make it any further.
This version was also stymied because Sony did not have access to the original Robotech designs due to ongoing litigation between the Japanese creators of Macross and Harmony Gold, who redeveloped the show as Robotech. Most of these legal issues were resolved in 2021, opening the door to a live-action movie using the original designs, or perhaps at least more faithful versions. It may also be the project might now have more legs due to the success of Top Gun: Maverick; a film which emphasises the fighter pilot storyline more heavily could do well (as an aside, the original Valkyrie/Veritech fighter was inspired by the F-14 Tomcat). Skull Squadron reprezent!
A Robotech/Macross live-action project will probably make it to the screen at some point in the future, but who knows when.
4 comments:
A live action TV series would probably be the best way to preserve the story and prevent it from becoming a brainless shoot’em up movie.
its never going to happen HG don't care about the fan base it gone - done - 35 plus years wasted lost no new projects just recycle episodes and tee shirt and mugs that's it
The picture states the SDF-1 was almost 2 miles long. In the animated show it’s 1210 meters long. That’s a huge difference!
HG is stingy AF with their control of Robotech licensing. But I'm fine with that if it prevents some studio from bastardizing technical or logistical elements of the show's main star the SDF-1 and it's co-stars the Veritech fighters, destroids, and alien mecha. But if the studio wants to preserve these technicals and focus on better writing that follows a better, more mature flow, I would be intrigued.
The main problem is that preserving what has been established by the animated series while trying to create something new and exciting will be very difficult. And doing this in one move would be a terrible idea, in my opinion. Minimum it would have to be a trilogy, and even then, we are talking 2.5 hours per movie to properly attempt represent the original series.
A better idea, in my mind, would be to make a movie about Zor, focusing on the Robotech masters and their society, internal power struggles and the ever-looming threat of the Invid. If I'm remembering my Robotech history correctly, Zor steals the (eventually named) SDF-1 from the Robotech masters with their last bit of protoculture to prevent the Invid from finding it and them and he is killed in the process. Eventually the ship crashes on Earth which could be the end of the first movie. From there I feel like the best way to represent the show would be a multi season series that stays true to the animated series, yet gives us the more grown up, real life maturity we desire, while filling in and fixing story gaps along the way.
I will say that whatever they do, they should really look at the success of BSG 2004 for battle scene inspiration. I felt like BSG did an amazing job with the believability of their science and technology for a TV show with their budget.
I don't care if I know any of the actors, I only care if they somewhat resemble their anime counterparts, are good actors, and are written believably similar to their anime characters.
I think what I've outlined would make for a successful franchise. But, in order for it to work they need to stick to a strict blueprint and generate as much excitement for the project as humanly possible before embarking on that journey. If it's a great show and not enough people are watching it, it will get cancelled. I'm looking at you Firefly....
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