Concept art for abandoned ROBOTECH movie emerges

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.

Due to various legal issues, the film couldn't use the original design for the Veritech (aka Valkyrie) fighters, so had to create their own. I have to say, these look pretty badass as replacements. In the foreground one of the fighters is in Guardian mode for VTOL and hovering.

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.

The concept art gets across the sheer scale of the SDF-1, which is almost two miles long, with Macross City (pop. 75,000, although that starts dropping very quickly) utterly dwarfed by its bulk.

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.

An interesting new idea is having massive rail guns located on rigs in Macross Harbour to provide AA cover for the SDF-1, as this Zentraedi gunship finds out to its cost.

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.

The CVS-01 Prometheus, a supercarrier manned with Veritech fighters assigned to patrol the area around Macross Island. The Prometheus goes on to play a continuous role in the story (not pictured: its submersible assault sister-carrier, the Daedalus, which has an even more impactful one).

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.

"I feel the need, the need for speed. And to sometimes transform into Jetfire, I guess."

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.

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ROBOTECH movie gets a new director, writer and (rough) time schedule

Sony are continuing to develop their long-gestating Robotech film project, based on the 1980s American animated TV series (based, in turn, on three Japanese anime series edited together into a single narrative). They now have a director and a writer for the film.

James Wan has withdrawn as director, to be replaced by hotter-than-sun Andy Muschietti, the director of the two-part movie version of Stephen King's IT, the first half of which was released last year to critical acclaim. Muschietti is currently working on IT Part II, which will be released on 6 September 2019. Muschietti will begin work on Robotech in earnest once IT Part II wraps post-production, which probably won't be until mid-2019 at the earliest.

Jason Fuchs has also been attached to the Robotech project as writer. He's thrown out the scripts developed over several previous years and is now working on a fresh take. Fuchs is also in demand following his credit as a co-writer on last year's Wonder Woman. However, his other scripts (Ice Age 3 and Pan) have been less well-received.

Assuming this project moves forward - which seems more likely now a firmer directorial deal seems in place (Wan's deal apparently foundered over DC's inability to confirm a timescale for his Aquaman project, although that is now shooting) - it'll probably be 2021 or 2022 before we see the film on the screen. There also remains a major issue in that Harmony Gold (the creators of Robotech) are in dispute with Studio Nue and Big West (the creators of the Macross anime, which is the primary source for the Robotech story and animation) over international distribution rights for the Macross series, sequels and prequels in the United States and Europe. As a result of this dispute, Studio Nue have refused to licence the original Macross mecha designs to Harmony Gold or (as far as is known) Sony. This means that if the Robotech film moves forward, it will not be able to use any of the mecha, starship or vehicle designs from the original Robotech series, This will not go down well with fans eager to see the Veritech fighters from their childhood in action on-screen.

Still, interesting to see how this project develops as it goes forward. The basic Robotech/Macross premise is incredibly strong: an alien starship crash lands on Earth just before a nascent World War III is about to go nuclear. The world's superpowers band together in the face of this greater threat and reverse-engineer the starship and its technology. A decade later, the alien owners of the ship (or, more accurately, their genetically-engineered slave-soldiers) show up to reclaim it and all hell breaks loose.

James Wan discusses the live-action ROBOTECH movie

James Wan is a busy man these days. Having steered Furious 7 into becoming both the most financially successful and critically-acclaimed Fast and Furious movie, he's also helmed both of the Conjuring movies and created the Saw franchise. Next up on his directorial list is the Jason Momoa-starring Aquaman for DC and Warner Brothers, but he has also firmly committed to directing the long-mooted Robotech movie as his next project beyond that.

The notion that the classic Veritech fighter won't be front-and-centre in the new Robotech movie is unthinkable for a lot of fans.

The Robotech movie has been on and off for years, with constant stumblings over the budget and rights issues between Harmony Gold (who created the Robotech TV series out of three unconnected Japanese anime series) and the original Japanese creators of the Macross franchise. This led to the very real - if utterly unthinkable for fans - possibility that the new Robotech movie might use new designs for things like Veritech fighters and might actually employ a completely new storyline and set of characters.

Wan's interview with Forbes is the first confirmation we have that the new movie will draw on the Macross part of the mythos and will use the classic characters. However, there is no confirmation yet on whether the film will employ the classic mecha designs or develop something new. Interestingly, Macross creator Shoji Kawamori has said he'd be up for a consulting role on the new film. Given his coolness to Harmony Gold (whose ironclad control of the Robotech franchise has seen all of the later Macross TV series being barred from release in the United States), that is both surprising and welcome news, indicating that the film may be able to use the original mecha designs (whose film likeness rights are still held by the original Japanese creators) if they so choose.

Given that Aquaman won't be out until 2018, I think we'd be doing well to see Robotech this side of 2021, but, unless there are unforeseen problems, the film finally looks like it's on its way.