Robotech and HG license debates

[taksraven]

The hurdle with Macross currently is how human culture screws-up the aliens attacking them. It'd be a simple matter to make a movie where an alien space ship crashes, humans get all sorts of tech from it, and the aliens show up to reclaim it and then get beaten back. Make that movie, even if the aliens are like 30' tall humanoids, and I don't think BW can complain in the least (you know, if all the characters are new and the mechs don't look familiar). Things don't get sticky until you have a little girl start singing and then all the aliens freak out, at that point you can easily identify it all as a Macross rip off rather than a rip off of many other alien crash stories. The trick for the writers at WB will be to come up with some other item that turns the tides against the alien and unites them in defending the humans.

Nah, I can't see copyright laws being *that* easy to get around. Look at this little example.....

James Cameron once said that what inspired him to make The Terminator were two episodes from the 1960s television science fiction series The Outer Limits - "Soldier" and "Demon with the Glass Hand", both written by science-fiction author Harlan Ellison. When the author threatened a lawsuit, Terminator production company Hemdale and distributor Orion Pictures gave veteran fantasy writer Harlan Ellison an "acknowledgement to the works of" credit on video and cable releases of The Terminator as well as a cash settlement after he threatened to sue for plagiarism of the two The Outer Limits episodes and the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever".

Thanks to wikipedia.

I think even with different characters and mech designs, they would still have to start from scratch with the storyline, otherwise it would probably end up in court.....

Taksraven

[Einherjar]

James Cameron once said that what inspired him to make The Terminator were two episodes from the 1960s television science fiction series The Outer Limits - "Soldier" and "Demon with the Glass Hand", both written by science-fiction author Harlan Ellison. When the author threatened a lawsuit, Terminator production company Hemdale and distributor Orion Pictures gave veteran fantasy writer Harlan Ellison an "acknowledgement to the works of" credit on video and cable releases of The Terminator as well as a cash settlement after he threatened to sue for plagiarism of the two The Outer Limits episodes and the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever".

Thanks to wikipedia.

I think even with different characters and mech designs, they would still have to start from scratch with the storyline, otherwise it would probably end up in court.....

Taksraven

It would be strange if that was all they needed to get the movie close to Macross going. Imagine the credits for the thing:

-Cast and crew for the movie*

*Based on the work of Carl Macek**

**Oh, but really based on the work of Shoji Kawamori, Studio Nue, etc.

[azrael]

Considering WB and Fox worked out a settlement to get Watchmen in theaters, yes, that's all it would take.

I take it that you also mean a new script for the "Macross Saga" as well, but they would have to be really careful otherwise they would *still* face the prospect of legal action against them.

DYRL? compacted a good chunk of SDFM into 2 hours. I don't think it would be that hard to do the same with RT's "Macross Saga". Just take the main highlights and toss the rest. And we are talking about Robotech here, not Macross. If you guys are thinking about a literal translation, word for word, cel for cel, then that probably wouldn't work for a movie format. A serialized TV show can drag things out. A movie has to compress it down to just the essentials.

Transformers did it and pulled it off. Star Trek is doing it and it looks like that's going to pull it off as well. Rebooting/reimaging/etc. can be done and legal headaches can be minimized.

[jenius]

Nah, I can't see copyright laws being *that* easy to get around. Look at this little example.....

James Cameron once said that what inspired him to make The Terminator were two episodes from the 1960s television science fiction series The Outer Limits - "Soldier" and "Demon with the Glass Hand", both written by science-fiction author Harlan Ellison. When the author threatened a lawsuit, Terminator production company Hemdale and distributor Orion Pictures gave veteran fantasy writer Harlan Ellison an "acknowledgement to the works of" credit on video and cable releases of The Terminator as well as a cash settlement after he threatened to sue for plagiarism of the two The Outer Limits episodes and the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever".

Thanks to wikipedia.

I think even with different characters and mech designs, they would still have to start from scratch with the storyline, otherwise it would probably end up in court.....

Taksraven

Either James Cameron borrowed really heavily from those stories (like stole an entire scene) or a deal was cut just because it was going to cost less than a court battle. The spaceship crashing to Earth, humans learning from it, humans fighting aliens angle is a story line that existed before Macross and nobody sued Studio Nue.

[Gubaba]

Either James Cameron borrowed really heavily from those stories (like stole an entire scene) or a deal was cut just because it was going to cost less than a court battle. The spaceship crashing to Earth, humans learning from it, humans fighting aliens angle is a story line that existed before Macross and nobody sued Studio Nue.

ANY amount of money is cheaper than fighting Harlan Ellison, in court or elsewhere.

Too bad he doesn't work for Big West. Not only would they own Macross worldwide by now, they'd probably end up owning Harmony Gold as well.

[Jasonc]

In the past couple months, Kevin McKeever has repeatedly insisted that there is no truth in the reports that Robotech: Shadow Rising is on pre-production hiatus so Harmony Gold can focus on the live action movie. Presumably they'll be having DR Movie do the animation again, and be having FUNimation handle the DVD release. Of course, Harmony Gold refuses to announce any kind of release date (even an estimate) for either production, which has led more than a few people to suspect one or both projects have been suspended.

I like how they say that, but every finger points in a different direction. Tommy did have a 2-2 1/2 year plan for releasing Shadow Rising. I remember seeing it at some local fan gathering where Tommy himself showed a number of us the schedule. What's funny now is that he denies ever saying or implying that Shadow Rising was supposed to come out 2 years after RTSC.

At one point, Funimation was interested in working w/ Harmony Gold in the second installment, even putting in a significant amount of dough into it. From what I read, Funimation had some things they wanted to do, like co-write maybe, and have the production done in Japan, instead of Korea. Harmony Gold didn't want to give up any of it's (for lack of a better description of their crap) "creative" control, and they turned them down. From there, I don't know what happened with them and Funimation. I've heard that the deal with Funimation having merchandising rights or a license since then has dried up (ala, no clothing or other merchandise other than a keychain). Also, I don't know if Funimation will still be doing the distribution.

Also, I don't buy the fact that they are still working on Shadow Rising. They, more than likely, were told by the bigger company (WB) that they don't want anything regarding Shadow Rising to be leaked, worked on, and/or even talked about until their film is done, or official, or maybe even out. I think Kevin's first comments when he mentioned hiatus isn't a lie, but in fact, a truth that wasn't supposed to be told. Thus, the reason why they used their propaganda podcast for the recant. As for the LAM, Lawrence Kasdan has abandoned the project it seems. The argument that they use many writers is B.S. Why would you hire the top notch writer first, then hand his work to smaller, less established writers to "continue and fine tune?" That's why I think he bailed, and abandoned the project, not a good sign for the future of the LAM.

[taksraven]

At one point, Funimation was interested in working w/ Harmony Gold in the second installment, even putting in a significant amount of dough into it.

Any money "invested" with HG could be considered money laundering.

Taksraven

[jenius]

If Lawrence Kasdan did bail I doubt it has anything to do with HG, WB, or Robotech. I think it's more likely that he submitted a draft, collected a paycheck, and WB just didn't think the draft was guaranteed money so they continue their quest for more money.

[azrael]

If Lawrence Kasdan did bail I doubt it has anything to do with HG, WB, or Robotech. I think it's more likely that he submitted a draft, collected a paycheck, and WB just didn't think the draft was guaranteed money so they continue their quest for more money.

Also bear in mind this is a fairly common practice. Joss Whedon was tapped to write a script for WB on Wonder Woman. He sent it, the studio paid him, and have ended up not using it. Lawrence Kasdan draft may be a basic outline of what was done. Alfred Gough and Miles Millar were brought on to rewrite. They may submit it, and the studio may decide to not go forward with it. If the 2 are done, it's up to the studio to decide to move forward with it or not.

[jenius]

I checked the RT forums to see what was said when Kasdan was dropped, found a direction to this site with this quote: http://www.canmag.com/nw/12820-robotech-mi...ar-alfred-gough

Kasdan did finish a draft for the bigscreen version, but it was either not geeky enough or had too little action. It is unknown whether Gough and Millar will take any pointers from it.

[Einherjar]

Gosh, besides adding more violence I get the feeling Gough and Millar are going to sex up the whole thing.

[jenius]

I think there are a bunch of guys at WB that are essentially thinking they can get another Transformers style money-maker going. So they probably got the Kasdan script and said "What the hell, this is nothing like Transformers!" They then sent it to the younger guys and said "Hey, make Transformers out of this." That's my guess. If we're looking they go for the "Hey, make a slightly more mature Transformers out of this" but I think any movie like this has merchandising dollars written all over it so if you really want to dig into that potential you have to make a movie the kids keep wanting to see and wanting the toys to play with... I don't think we'll get anything too sexed up. I do hope I'm wrong, I hope instead WB goes for something aimed at adults with a PG-13 and the hope that the kids will love the flash enough to gobble it up. I also wonder if the title of the movie being ROBOTECH would hinder it? It just sounds so dated at this point.

[Gubaba]

I think there are a bunch of guys at WB that are essentially thinking they can get another Transformers style money-maker going. So they probably got the Kasdan script and said "What the hell, this is nothing like Transformers!" They then sent it to the younger guys and said "Hey, make Transformers out of this." That's my guess. If we're looking they go for the "Hey, make a slightly more mature Transformers out of this" but I think any movie like this has merchandising dollars written all over it so if you really want to dig into that potential you have to make a movie the kids keep wanting to see and wanting the toys to play with... I don't think we'll get anything too sexed up. I do hope I'm wrong, I hope instead WB goes for something aimed at adults with a PG-13 and the hope that the kids will love the flash enough to gobble it up. I also wonder if the title of the movie being ROBOTECH would hinder it? It just sounds so dated at this point.

Yeah, the title is a hindrance. I mean, Transformers had such '80s-isms as Cybertron, but it's not in the title, at least. As far as '80s buzzwords go, "tech" has aged better than "video," so it might be okay.

One of my Japanese friends (who loves Frontier and wanted to know why it wasn't going to be released in the U.S.) actually laughed out loud when I told her the name "Robotech." "Sounds so stupid!" was her exact quote.

[Bri]

I wonder what would happen if the movie against all odd becomes a succes. Will HG retain any merchandising rights in the WB deal?

Alternatively would the WB designs be used for futher HG RT projects? That would open up the chance for Macross to be finally left alone (one can hope).

[DarrinG]

If its incredibly well done the name Robotech won't hurt it (star wars, star trek, transformers)

But if WB doesn't make some type of deal with BIG WEST so that they are allowed to follow the show what's the point of tying it to Robotech or Macross at all? HERE's WHY:

WB should be sacred of try making something very loosely based on Macross but NOT identifiable as such. The Macross characters and minor details have made it globally popular for decades. Essentially they would be trying to match this popularity out of their own talent and luck that it sticks with the public. That's a big chance with 200 million bucks when they can pay some people and get a more sure thing (like the james cameron examples given earlier).

The original Macross storyline has massive universal appeal unlike the cobble together mess that is R:SC. WB NEEDS to strike a deal with Big West so that they can use the ideas and characters that will make both new fans and existing fans happy.

WB can try to tip-toe around all the legal, dream up something almost totally new and hope for the best. But I won't likely be happy with the outcome, and I doubt the public whose never heard of Robotech or Macross will eat it up either.

We know HG could not convince Big West because of al the bad history but maybe WB can . . .

[VF5SS]

Just make Independence Day where the planes turn into robots. And then Rick can welcome the aliens to Earf.

[Roy Focker]

Who should play chunky L/Misa?

[RavenHawk]

Who should play chunky L/Misa?

My money would be on somebody live Liv Tyler.

[Einherjar]

Who should play chunky L/Misa?

Worst case scenario - Air Force Amy

[azrael]

I wonder what would happen if the movie against all odd becomes a succes. Will HG retain any merchandising rights in the WB deal?

I'm sure that will be a "yes".

Alternatively would the WB designs be used for futher HG RT projects? That would open up the chance for Macross to be finally left alone (one can hope).

Like Transformers: Animated did, I'm sure they'll use those since it will be ingrained in everybody's heads or try to redesign things for a simpler format.

[Jasonc]

Having a redesign could be the best thing for it. While I don't have any respect for the powers that be at HG, I don't care if the franchise does well, or falls flat. Either way, I'd like to have Robotech's true beginnings, Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada left alone. It's finally time to let those series survive on their own, and see if RT has what it takes to stand on its own.

As for the progress of the LAM, something's holding it up, and there is so much speculation, I don't think anyone really knows for sure. The one script I have for the LAM doesn't look too bad. It's definitely Macross Saga, and has quite a few differences that make it fit for a movie. I don't doubt that WB is trying to work on it. I suppose only 20 years will tell when it finally comes out.

[Einherjar]

As for the progress of the LAM, something's holding it up, and there is so much speculation, I don't think anyone really knows for sure. The one script I have for the LAM doesn't look too bad. It's definitely Macross Saga, and has quite a few differences that make it fit for a movie. I don't doubt that WB is trying to work on it. I suppose only 20 years will tell when it finally comes out.

Guess that leaves HG with nothing to do except releasing toys and RPG books until then. At this rate I'll be surprised if the company lasts long enough to see the LAM, since it sounds like it's the last chance for both the series and HG to go on.

[jenius]

Last chance? You think HG is in economic trouble? They've survived off a trickle of residuals for this long, I would guess they're doing just fine unless they get themselves wrapped up with a ton of money borrowed to make a show that doesn't come out or tanks or something. As long as they're in a holding pattern they can probably stick around for quite a while.

[Einherjar]

Last chance? You think HG is in economic trouble? They've survived off a trickle of residuals for this long, I would guess they're doing just fine unless they get themselves wrapped up with a ton of money borrowed to make a show that doesn't come out or tanks or something. As long as they're in a holding pattern they can probably stick around for quite a while.

I forgot about that. Handouts are their strategy.

[DarrinG]

As for the progress of the LAM, something's holding it up, and there is so much speculation, I don't think anyone really knows for sure.

How do we know there's a "hold up"?

[RavenHawk]

Honestly, I think that the Robotech live-action movie's best bet is to follow the Transformers live-action movie model.

Let me clarify: If you look at Transformers, they took the very basic premise (2 factions of warring robots from another planet; robots transform into Earth vehicles) and character names (Optimus Prime et al., even the Witwicky family was from the Marvel comics, though not the show), and kept nothing else. Character personalities were different, professions of human characters were different, motivations of robots were different (All-Spark versus energon), looks of the robots were completely different, vehicle modes were completely different, everything. This worked.

For Robotech, you do the same thing. Same very basic premise (alien ship lands on Earth; humans develop technology from it, including variable fighters; aliens come looking for it; war ensues) and character names (Roy Fokker, Rick Hunter, Lisa Hayes, Glovel, etc.). The ships will look completely different. The planes will look completely different. The robots will look completely different. The aliens will look completely different. The characters will behave completely differently. Oh, and skip over Minmei and the musical aspect all together.

This, in my opinion, is the only way a Robotech LAM would have a chance of being financially successful, while also having the benefit of being thoroughly distanced from Macross, Macross fans, and Macross lawsuits.

[Jasonc]

Last chance? You think HG is in economic trouble? They've survived off a trickle of residuals for this long, I would guess they're doing just fine unless they get themselves wrapped up with a ton of money borrowed to make a show that doesn't come out or tanks or something. As long as they're in a holding pattern they can probably stick around for quite a while.

A lot of Harmony Gold's money comes from the entertainment industry, but also from real estate. Back around 2006, in a chat w/ their creative director, he mentioned that HG has a lot of property and they have a seperate real estate company or corp. I don't know about the details, as I didn't really care too much about it. But most companies in HG's position do delve into other areas to make profits. Robotech is not their bread and butter by any means. If anything, it's more of a pet project. Probably why the fans are treated like abused step children who keep coming back for more.

[Freiflug88]

Also, I don't buy the fact that they are still working on Shadow Rising. They, more than likely, were told by the bigger company (WB) that they don't want anything regarding Shadow Rising to be leaked, worked on, and/or even talked about until their film is done, or official, or maybe even out. I think Kevin's first comments when he mentioned hiatus isn't a lie, but in fact, a truth that wasn't supposed to be told.

No doubt the plan is to follow Batman the Dark Knight and the animated Gotham knights plan: release LAM first then release Direct to video animated movie in the period between LAM getting pulled from theaters and put on DVD.

Kasdan did finish a draft for the bigscreen version, but it was either not geeky enough or had too little action. It is unknown whether Gough and Millar will take any pointers from it.

http://www.canmag.com/nw/12820-robotech-mi...ar-alfred-gough

That is mostly likely speculation on Hollywood Reporters part and not an actually statement from someone at WB. Lawrence Kasadan just finished the script he was paid to write and left because he has no other role in making the movie. ItWriters are paid to write pages of scripts and nothing else unless they are also doing some other role such as producing.

The original Macross storyline has massive universal appeal unlike the cobble together mess that is R:SC. WB NEEDS to strike a deal with Big West so that they can use the ideas and characters that will make both new fans and existing fans happy.

Its not the "bandwagon to the stars" Macross storyline that won out over Robotech's "humanity verus alien invaders" storyline per say. The universal appeal was in the characters and their back stories rather then the broad storyline itself. HG had no problem in creating a humans versus aliens battle story for R:SC, its with the characters that they utterly fail with.

WB can try to tip-toe around all the legal, dream up something almost totally new and hope for the best. But I won't likely be happy with the outcome, and I doubt the public whose never heard of Robotech or Macross will eat it up either.

We know HG could not convince Big West because of all the bad history but maybe WB can . . .

I wonder if WB execs really know the truth of Macross and the copyrights that BW has in Japan? Perhaps HG's lies that they own "all the rights to Robotech" have gotten to their heads.

Come to think of it the original Robotech series could be used in WB defense. After all it will be harder for Big West to argue in court that WB is accountable for plagiarizing the Macross storyline on the grounds that WB was remaking the Robotech series as written by Carl Macek in which they were given copyrights by HG. Whats more since its been about 24 years since Robotech was created its long over due for BW to take Carl Macek to court over editing Macross into the original Robotech.

Also consider things from BW's point of view. There legal battles for control over Macross in America didn't go as well as they had hoped. Do you think they would be willing to throw a bunch of money to sue WB in an expensive trial for making a Robotech LAM movie that shows influences from Macross? I mean do you really think BW would risk a lot of Mac Frontier profits in an expensive legal fight with WB over a Live Action Robotech franchise that will be no more competition to the Macross franchise then the lastest Star Trek movie will be. Even if the Robotech LAM was a complete rip-off of Macross it would not hurt Macross at all. Japanese fans won't stop being Macross fans just because a LAM has rip-offed off the Macross movie, and HG blocking Macross from leaving Japan anyways so there is little to fight for in a legal battle with WB. Plus, if a legal dispute does erupt the worst case scenario for WB is that they lose alot of money stalling BW in court rather then making a cheaper settlement outside of court with them.

With that in mind Zach Snyder should direct the LAM Robotech! He would do everything possible to stay loyal to Macross, hell I bet he would consider making the LAM movie into a Live action DYRL fansub if was at the helm for Robotech.

Edited April 17, 2009 by Freiflug88

[terry the lone wolf]

Come to think of it the original Robotech series could be used in WB defense. After all it will be harder for Big West to argue in court that WB is accountable for plagiarizing the Macross storyline on the grounds that WB was remaking the Robotech series as written by Carl Macek in which they were given copyrights by HG. Whats more since its been about 24 years since Robotech was created its long over due for BW to take Carl Macek to court over editing Macross into the original Robotech.

I don't think it's possible for Big West to sue Carl Macek for editing Macross. Tatsunoko has the international rights to distribute the show everywhere outside of Japan because Studio Nue sold them to finish the series. Tatsunoko lease those same rights to Harmony Gold who edited it. Harmony Gold has every right to change names, edit scenes, or alter story lines because of the arrangement with Tatsunoko. The problem is HG or Tatsunoko cannot lay claim to any Macross sequel because these sequels were done without any input from Tatsunoko. The SDF Macross series is owned by Big West in Japan but the international copyright is owned by Tatsunoko. Tatsunoko or HG cannot make derivatives of characters or mecha models because Big West owns them.

[Einherjar]

Here's Justy Ueki's take on rebooting Robotech (the guy from the RDF Underground podcast):

http://www.rdfug.com/blog/2009/4/17/does-i...d-a-reboot.html

[Freiflug88]

I don't think it's possible for Big West to sue Carl Macek for editing Macross. Tatsunoko has the international rights to distribute the show everywhere outside of Japan because Studio Nue sold them to finish the series. Tatsunoko lease those same rights to Harmony Gold who edited it. Harmony Gold has every right to change names, edit scenes, or alter story lines because of the arrangement with Tatsunoko. The problem is HG or Tatsunoko cannot lay claim to any Macross sequel because these sequels were done without any input from Tatsunoko. The SDF Macross series is owned by Big West in Japan but the international copyright is owned by Tatsunoko. Tatsunoko or HG cannot make derivatives of characters or mecha models because Big West owns them.

I was talking more about using the actual Macross/Robotech storyline in the LAM. I know BW has rights to the derivatives model and charaterwise, but Tatsunko and HG do have the rights to the actual show itself. There in lies a big grey area that I see. Robotech's script was edited from the Macross show which is owned by Tatsunko and not copied word for word by BW's Macross script. Often these grey copyright issues are either settled or won by the side with the most money for good lawyers. Whats more it is easy for WB to argue that they made a Robotech movie with the Robotech storyline rights acquired from HG and that a issue over the plagiarism of Macross's storyline be between BW and HG.

Now as for the derivative rights of the animated mecha and charater appearances, I don't think all of them would work in BW favor necessarily. Only truly unique designs such as the Macross, Destroids and Monster mecha, zentradi ships, and UN Spacey uniforms are inexcusably BW designs. The 30ft humanoid aliens with different skin and hair tones, aircraft carriors in space and as giant robot fists, singing chinese girl, 80s hairstyles/clothing styles are not unigue designs from BW though. I also doubt that BW transforming f-14 design rights will mean anything in court considering that General Dynamics and Grumman are the real owners of the F-14 design.

Edited April 17, 2009 by Freiflug88

[Gubaba]

Now as for the derivative rights of the animated mecha and charater appearances, I don't think all of them would work in BW favor necessarily. Only truly unique designs such as the Macross, Destroids and Monster mecha, zentradi ships, and UN Spacey uniforms are inexcusably BW designs. The 30ft humanoid aliens with different skin and hair tones, aircraft carriors in space and as giant robot fists, singing chinese girl, 80s hairstyles/clothing styles are not unigue designs from BW though. I also doubt that BW transforming f-14 design rights will mean anything in court considering that General Dynamics and Grumman are the real owners of the F-14 design.

I think that now we're getting into legal waters that only the professionals can navigate. Big West DOES own the character and mecha designs...if anyone wants to argue otherwise, well...that's more than the armchair lawyers can handle, I think.

(I know, I know...we're talking about a lot of "if"s here. IF the movie gets made, and IF Big West decides to sue, and IF WB wants to bring it to court instead of settling, what would their defense be? It's all a little too speculative for my taste. But that's just me. )

[Freiflug88]

I think that now we're getting into legal waters that only the professionals can navigate. Big West DOES own the character and mecha designs...if anyone wants to argue otherwise, well...that's more than the armchair lawyers can handle, I think.

(I know, I know...we're talking about a lot of "if"s here. IF the movie gets made, and IF Big West decides to sue, and IF WB wants to bring it to court instead of settling, what would their defense be? It's all a little too speculative for my taste. But that's just me. smile.gif )

In the copyright domain all of things are subjective and speculative like this though. I wish I could find the clip of when Steven Colbert had his brother, a copyright lawyer, come on the show to debate about who had the rights to the Obama HOPE photo (http://media.collegepublisher.com/media/paper791/stills/4g02ri0d.jpg). When Steven asked if it was Obama, the photographer, or the guy who edited the photo that should have rights to the photo his brother replied that all of them could claim ownership of the photo. Then when Stephen was asked whose side he was on his brother replied "I'm a lawyer I am on the side of who ever pays me the most money."

I do agree that we are all speculating and talking about a lot of ifs especially with what little confirmed news we do have. I for one though want to look back on our current speculations if and when the movie is made to see how right or wrong we were. It will be somewhat anti-climatic though if it creates as much hype as Watchmen did when it was marketed as staying as loyal as possible to the comics. Then again if it did create such hype then Macross could become more well known stateside.

Forgotten by all this legal speculation though I think the single biggest factor that will influence the Macross scales in the LAM is Tobey Maguire. Its his money and the people that he is hiring that are making this movie possible, not HG, BW, or Tatsunko. The bigger the fanboy he is no doubt the harder he will push to put more Macross/Robotech into the movie however he can.

Edited April 17, 2009 by Freiflug88

[Einherjar]

I have to question whether or not Tobey Maguire was/is a fan of Robotech. It might have been a coincidence that he liked it and his company is interested in the movie, but it's kind of convenient that a lot of closeted big name anime and related hobby fans in Hollywood would reveal themselves near the same time as the announcements for these live adaptations. It would have helped if they mentioned this before, like it would be a big deal since they're already successful, but for all we know they're just following the money trend for the industry. Look at Vin Diesel (regardless of the quality of his work) for example, confirmed D&D player and proud of it.

[Seto Kaiba]

I have to question whether or not Tobey Maguire was/is a fan of Robotech. It might have been a coincidence that he liked it and his company is interested in the movie, but it's kind of convenient that a lot of closeted big name anime and related hobby fans in Hollywood would reveal themselves near the same time as the announcements for these live adaptations.

I genuinely doubt that Tobey Maguire is actually a fan of Robotech, particularly in light of the fact that the "news" that he was a Robotech fan came from Harmony Gold. As we all know, Harmony Gold employees aren't exactly the most trustworthy sources of information, what with that almost Soviet-esque tendency to bury information that doesn't show them in a positive light, and occasionally "re-interpret" the facts to show themselves in a better light, like they've been doing with Shadow Chronicles.

I'm much more inclined to believe the claims that former Star Trek actor Wil Wheaton is a Robotech fan, because he has no obvious ulterior motives for claiming to be one, and the news that he was came before the announcement that there would be a live-action Robotech movie.

Edited April 17, 2009 by Seto Kaiba