Skip to main content

I Am Legend producer brings Robotech out of the ’80s into movie theaters

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Marvel Pictures is on to phase two with Guardians of the Galaxy coming soon and Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man sequels on the horizon. Michael Bay is doing laps around the 1980s with both Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. G.I. Joe 2 is finally hitting theaters. Warner Bros. is already talking about rebooting Batman as The Justice League comes closer to reality. Even a Voltron movie is in development. There are no action fantasy properties left for Hollywood to adapt! The well is dry. Even Disney has simply resorted to bringing back Star Wars.

Never say never: Here comes a Robotech movie.

The Hollywood Reporter reported on Thursday that Warner Bros. is going to make a major adaptation of the 1980s cartoon series on the scale of Paramount Pictures’ Bay-produced Transformers movies. Producer Akiva Goldsman (I Am Legend) and Tobey Maguire (Spider-man) have hired commercial director Ni Mathieu to helm the movie.

Robotech is a particularly strange cartoon to adapt, as the series was actually made using re-appropriated footage of a Japanese cartoon called Macross. The two share in common the central hook: The humans of the future pilot enormous bi-pedal robots to do battle with aliens seeking a fotress that crash landed on Earth and inspired a wave of new technology, including the mech-ships. Guillermo del Toro is already making Warner Bros a humans-in-robots movie called Pacific Rim, but unlike that movie, Robotech’s pilots are fighting aliens rather than monsters – plus: its giant robots also turn into spaceships. The studio is banking on audience hunger for giant robots to be limitless.

Robotech has producers and a director, but that’s far from a guarantee that the movie will actually get made. Warner Bros. has been reticent to fund a number of Akiva Goldsman’s more ambitious, effects-heavy projects. Just two years ago the producer teamed with Ron Howard to begin work on a multi-film and television series adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower novels. An obscure property like Robotech will likely be pushed aside if more lucrative projects require the money. For example, Goldsman is also producing a movie of DC Comics character Lobo. As Warner Bros.’ is desperate to recreate the success of The Dark Knight, films like Lobo may hit theaters long before Robotech does.

Anthony John Agnello
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…
How to buy and customize ships in Sea of Thieves
The name King of Red Lions floats above a red, customized ship in Sea of Thieves.

The newest season of Sea of Thieves is here to take you back to your favorite swashbuckling adventure world. And whether that means you're checking out the series for the first time or you're having trouble remembering everything from the last time you played, you're probably aware that you'll need a ship to find a transport your booty around. Here's how to get a ship in Sea of Thieves as well as customize it to your liking.

Read more
Quick! This PS5 bundle just got an unprecedented price cut
The Playstation 5 system standing upright.

We didn't expect the PlayStation 5 Slim, the updated version of Sony's video game console, to go on sale this soon, but you can already get the PlayStation 5 Slim Marvel's Spider-Man 2 bundle from Amazon with a 20% discount. From its original price of $559, you'll only have to pay $449, which is a fantastic price for this gaming machine. PS5 deals always attract a lot of attention, so we expect this offer to get sold out quickly. If you want to take advantage of it, you're going to have to hurry in completing your purchase.

Why you should buy the PlayStation 5 Slim Marvel's Spider-Man 2 bundle
The PlayStation 5 Slim is more than just a slimmed-down version of the original PlayStation 5 -- though the difference is noticeable with 18% less weight and 30% less volume for the disc version. There's no performance upgrade between the PS5 Slim and PS5, and you'll be able to play all of the PlayStation 5 games on either model, but the PS5 Slim comes with a 1TB of storage with around 842GB usable, compared to 825GB with 667GB usable in the original PS5. That's nearly 200GB of extra space for your installed games, save data, and screenshots.

Read more
How to change your Steam username
Steam library.

Unless you've got an absolute premium username or have too many linked accounts to name, there's no reason to stick with the same username forever. Unlike some services that offer limited username changes or charge to change your tag, Steam allows users to adjust their usernames at any time.

You don't have to keep that awful username you picked on some random Tuesday before hopping into a game. Here's how you can make a change.

Read more