Live-action Robotech Movie

[Hoptimus]

No offense intended, but do you patrol people being negative about other things, or just Robotech? Because, honestly, the "Pacific Rim" thread could use some patrolling now. Lots of negativity there.

That is what the report button is for. I just happened to check in here since Robotech usually attracts the trolls. Thanks.

[jenius]

So if this movie were to get made, here's my guess at how they'll change it enough as to not disturb the Macross properties that belong to BigWest:
1) Roy Hunter (he's now literally Rick's older brother)

2) Rick Hunter's past at the air show is gone, he's now 18, and he's a wandering rebel because dad just died and the bank took the farm. He'll be made as American as apple pie by having his backstory be that he used to fly his folks' crop duster.

3) New veritech will be based on the JSFand have a Legioss style transformation. I whipped it up on a napkin while on the train, it's not at all hard to do.

4) The word 'destroid' is gone and the existing non-transformable support craft all have electromagnetic tank treads attached to torsos and arms.

5) UN Spacy is gone and since the nutjobs in the states are worried about a UN takeover we'll instead see everything decked out as US Air Force, Marines, Navy, etc. If they make a sequel some sort of unified government will be introduced... but it still won't be called "UN". Is UEG a Macross term?

6) It won't be the SDF-1 but I'll bet they'll do something like call it the first 'fortress-class' space vessel. Maybe they'll slap it with another Robotech name like the FC-1 Icarus and say it's the first 'macross-class' vessel and leave the homage/link there. It won't be a space fold that traps a city with the space ship, instead the ship will act as a bomb shelter at some point and then rescue everyone at a base on Mars or the moon and that's how it will come to have a lot of civilians on board.

7) Since Robotech altered the timeline to have WWIII get stopped by the arrival of the SDF-1, I'd expect something similar. To further distance itself from the originals and Macross I wouldn't be surprised if they do something like have a large bomb blast reveal a buried space ship in a remote location. It's when humans then explore the ruins and turn it on that the aliens start seeking out Earth. This eliminates the fairly iconic scene of the SDF-1 crashing on Earth.

Minmay won't be around and singing will have nothing to do with the turning point of the war. Instead Rick's leading lady will be played by a girl who is just gorgeous (any ethnicity may apply).

9) The alien's will not be as huge as Zentraedi and the commanders will be a smaller race (a la the Robotech Masters). Imagine 15' tall bad guys with 6' tall leaders. It's the leader class that will infilitrate the human ship and decide to save humanity because of love, not culture. The aliens will all be clones that have their passions taken from them through chemical manipulation. In the end it will be revealed that the soldier-class is just altered leader class and the leader class has the ability to alter them back. They also have the ability to end the chemical manipulation so the survivors of the climactic last battle can all live in peace (although their will be allusions to other dangers).

10) No rain of death... or at least, not nearly as serious of one. In the New Gen the Earth wasn't nearly as bad off as it was in the other two chapters so they can unify future movies and have something closer to the original new gen by just having earth get bruised in the final battle.

11) In the end we'll be told that the leaders of the leader-class developed this army as a disposable means of fighting without getting their hands dirty and that they were responsible for seeding a great many planets in the universe and Earth is almost certainly one of those planets. This Master class will be upset to know that one of its seedlings has defeated a portion of its military. Fortunately, the humans have caught a big break because, although they didn't know it, the ship they found has a power plant on board capable of producing unlimited energy... something the Master class has still been unable to replicate.

There are my guesses.

[azrael]

Again, there are no legal issues with Macross. RT already has its own screwed-up universe to draw from. There's more to RT than the Macross Saga to draw from. The Robotech Masters and New Generation already fill the back story and carry on from the Macross Saga and add to their universe. There's no need to grab anything from Macross besides what is already there in RT.

[jenius]

The Macross Saga is Robotech's dominant and most popular chapter. The vast majority of folks with any faded memory of Robotech remember The Macross Saga. Sure, HG can use all the unique aspects of Robotech's Macross story to tell a Macross chapter... but they can't use the common elements except where they are generic. It seems naive to think this Robotech movie is just going to bank on The Masters and New Gen lore... seeing as the fans of both chapters combined would be fewer than the fans of the first chapter.

[Gubaba]

Again, there are no legal issues with Macross. RT already has its own screwed-up universe to draw from. There's more to RT than the Macross Saga to draw from. The Robotech Masters and New Generation already fill the back story and carry on from the Macross Saga and add to their universe. There's no need to grab anything from Macross besides what is already there in RT.

However, Sylvain White (remember him...?) said that the script that he read was based on "the first generation"...

http://www.movieweb.com/news/sylvain-white-to-direct-robotech-movie

[slaginpit]

So if this movie were to get made, here's my guess at how they'll change it enough as to not disturb the Macross properties that belong to BigWest:

1) Roy Hunter (he's now literally Rick's older brother)

2) Rick Hunter's past at the air show is gone, he's now 18, and he's a wandering rebel because dad just died and the bank took the farm. He'll be made as American as apple pie by having his backstory be that he used to fly his folks' crop duster.

3) New veritech will be based on the JSFand have a Legioss style transformation. I whipped it up on a napkin while on the train, it's not at all hard to do.

4) The word 'destroid' is gone and the existing non-transformable support craft all have electromagnetic tank treads attached to torsos and arms.

5) UN Spacy is gone and since the nutjobs in the states are worried about a UN takeover we'll instead see everything decked out as US Air Force, Marines, Navy, etc. If they make a sequel some sort of unified government will be introduced... but it still won't be called "UN". Is UEG a Macross term?

6) It won't be the SDF-1 but I'll bet they'll do something like call it the first 'fortress-class' space vessel. Maybe they'll slap it with another Robotech name like the FC-1 Icarus and say it's the first 'macross-class' vessel and leave the homage/link there. It won't be a space fold that traps a city with the space ship, instead the ship will act as a bomb shelter at some point and then rescue everyone at a base on Mars or the moon and that's how it will come to have a lot of civilians on board.

7) Since Robotech altered the timeline to have WWIII get stopped by the arrival of the SDF-1, I'd expect something similar. To further distance itself from the originals and Macross I wouldn't be surprised if they do something like have a large bomb blast reveal a buried space ship in a remote location. It's when humans then explore the ruins and turn it on that the aliens start seeking out Earth. This eliminates the fairly iconic scene of the SDF-1 crashing on Earth.

Minmay won't be around and singing will have nothing to do with the turning point of the war. Instead Rick's leading lady will be played by a girl who is just gorgeous (any ethnicity may apply).

9) The alien's will not be as huge as Zentraedi and the commanders will be a smaller race (a la the Robotech Masters). Imagine 15' tall bad guys with 6' tall leaders. It's the leader class that will infilitrate the human ship and decide to save humanity because of love, not culture. The aliens will all be clones that have their passions taken from them through chemical manipulation. In the end it will be revealed that the soldier-class is just altered leader class and the leader class has the ability to alter them back. They also have the ability to end the chemical manipulation so the survivors of the climactic last battle can all live in peace (although their will be allusions to other dangers).

10) No rain of death... or at least, not nearly as serious of one. In the New Gen the Earth wasn't nearly as bad off as it was in the other two chapters so they can unify future movies and have something closer to the original new gen by just having earth get bruised in the final battle.

11) In the end we'll be told that the leaders of the leader-class developed this army as a disposable means of fighting without getting their hands dirty and that they were responsible for seeding a great many planets in the universe and Earth is almost certainly one of those planets. This Master class will be upset to know that one of its seedlings has defeated a portion of its military. Fortunately, the humans have caught a big break because, although they didn't know it, the ship they found has a power plant on board capable of producing unlimited energy... something the Master class has still been unable to replicate.

There are my guesses.

Very good guess! It could be a nice start to a cool trilogy. A good mix of Macross/Robotech. But my hope is that they stay along the lines of Macross and not mix the two so much. I dont see why they could not have the Zents as giants. After all look at jack the giant slayer. The promos for that look good.

[azrael]

However, Sylvain White (remember him...?) said that the script that he read was based on "the first generation"...

http://www.movieweb.com/news/sylvain-white-to-direct-robotech-movie

Well, they have to start somewhere. I'm sure they left it open to sequels but they need something to give to the studio to start with.

The Macross Saga is Robotech's dominant and most popular chapter. The vast majority of folks with any faded memory of Robotech remember The Macross Saga. Sure, HG can use all the unique aspects of Robotech's Macross story to tell a Macross chapter... but they can't use the common elements except where they are generic.

And there's the key word: generic.

3) New veritech will be based on the JSFand have a Legioss style transformation. I whipped it up on a napkin while on the train, it's not at all hard to do.

If it wasn't modernized in some way to look like a F-22 or JSF or some modern fighter jet, I'd be shocked.

5)... Is UEG a Macross term?

No. Unified Government is. But UEG is covered in RT. http://www.robotech.com/infopedia/encyclopedia/viewterms.php?alpha=U

9) The alien's will not be as huge as Zentraedi and the commanders will be a smaller race (a la the Robotech Masters). ...

See, Robotech Masters covered this in some form or another. Don't need to pull anything else from Macross (aka Japan).

11)... This Master class will be upset to know that one of its seedlings has defeated a portion of its military. Fortunately, the humans have caught a big break because, although they didn't know it, the ship they found has a power plant on board capable of producing unlimited energy... something the Master class has still been unable to replicate.

As I mentioned, RT already uses it's other shows (besides Macross) to flesh out the back story. I wouldn't be shocked if they worm their way into a 1st movie. It's not like RT has nothing to draw upon using just Macross. Heck, they did it in RT when they threw in some Southern Cross footage into the Macross-portion of the show.

[jvmacross]

Wonder what a Kawamori re-envisioned VF-1 would look like?

[pfunk]

No SDF-1? no daedalus attack? Non transforming,,,,,, That would ruin anything good in this world

[Mr March]

If it wasn't modernized in some way to look like a F-22 or JSF or some modern fighter jet, I'd be shocked.

I very much agree. Hollywood has a long and well known history of always featuring the latest and greatest hardware in any given film. Any potential variable mecha will either be based on the most modern fighter craft or something with pseudo-futuristic styling. Also, the motivation for Hollywood to create a potential Robotech movie is pure brand recognition (something people will know) and trend exploitation (ressurgence of 1980s pop culture). Films made with those considerations as the primary motivator NEVER stray from formula. We can almost be assured any existing Macross design will not appear. Most likely, the designs will be disappointing, both from the point of view of a western/real-mecha aesthetic and from an anime/hyper-stylized perspective.

[Gubaba]

Wonder what a Kawamori re-envisioned VF-1 would look like?

A VF-0.

[VF5SS]

A VF-3000~

[jvmacross]

Hiring Kawamori and Miyatake to create new/original designs might give the Robotech movie some "street cred".....probably would never happen

[Ignacio Ocamica]

Wonder what a Kawamori re-envisioned VF-1 would look like?

I'd say like the SW-AXI Schneeblume.

[Garbon]

Wait, this movie thing is still alive?

[Einherjar]

Hiring Kawamori and Miyatake to create new/original designs might give the Robotech movie some "street cred".....probably would never happen

Tommy Yune aka Mr. Poor Man's Everything is more likely.

[jenius]

Very good guess! It could be a nice start to a cool trilogy. A good mix of Macross/Robotech. But my hope is that they stay along the lines of Macross and not mix the two so much. I dont see why they could not have the Zents as giants. After all look at jack the giant slayer. The promos for that look good.

I hope (and expect) they mix the chapters (Macross Saga with Masters/New Gen) hard because Robotech as an original story derives most of its originality from the stuff they had to come up with to glue the three separate animes together. One would think they would have mixed the stories together more if they were doing their own animation and doing a fresh movie creates the opportunity for that to happen. As for size, twice the size of a normal man seems like it could be made pretty intimidating without seeming outlandish and would allow the production of the movie to use more items that are scaled for your every day human. I also think back to those outlandish last episodes where the Zentraedi use forks to imprison people and smoke giant cigars and eat giant turkey legs and cringe. To Azrael's point (I think), they could just elect to have all the aliens be the average human and model them entirely after the Masters. I prefer to think of a Masters Zentraedi hybrid though and leave the true 'Masters' as the bad guy for an episode 2 (that would obviously take a miracle to get made).

Here are more (not-so) bold predictions for you:

1) If there is a Ben Dixon, or Ben Dixon like character, he will now be black.

2) If there is a Claudia Grant, or Claudia Grant-like character, she will now be latina

3) Gloval will still smoke cigars and get yelled at for it

4) The enemy mecha will be horrible looking and universally panned

5) Protoculture will be renamed "Bioculture" and be defined as only an energy source, nothing else. All Earth mecha will run off big bioculture batteries. Bioculture will be the B in HBT which will be stamped on all the batteries.

No SDF-1? no daedalus attack? Non transforming,,,,,, That would ruin anything good in this world

It'd be the SDF-1 in spirit, not name. They could give it some new gimmick to compensate for the lack of transformation. Using the ship as a battering ram and then blasting the enemy could be a key ingredient in the climax of the film.

Edited February 27, 2013 by jenius

[Mommar]

Hiring Kawamori and Miyatake to create new/original designs might give the Robotech movie some "street cred".....probably would never happen

Would it? Even if they did hire them would the designs survive boardroom butchering? Would fans of Macross like or hate that idea even more? And would either of them ever even agree to do it considering what has been done to their property?

Edited February 27, 2013 by Mommar

[Hoptimus]

Captain Global smoked a pipe not cigars but I see what you did there...

[CoreyD]

I just realized that Tommy Yune worked on the Journeyman Project. That was a really cool game for its time.

As for the Robotech movie, I'll probably watch it on netflix if it ever comes out...just like GI Joe and Transformers.

[Gubaba]

3) Gloval will still smoke cigars and get yelled at for it

Unlikely. Smokers in Hollywood movies after 1995 or so always, ALWAYS die (cf. Volcano and Deep Blue Sea).

[Einherjar]

Unlikely. Smokers in Hollywood movies after 1995 or so always, ALWAYS die (cf. Volcano and Deep Blue Sea).

A problem that solves itself, then?

[jenius]

Doesn't Gloval die in Robotech?

Edited February 27, 2013 by jenius

[EXO]

You can say that it's weed and they won't have to die. Hollywood doesn't kill stoners. i.e. every stoner movie ever made.

[Gubaba]

Doesn't Gloval die in Robotech?

Dunno. Does he? When?

[jenius]

I think everyone but Lisa it's killed by khyron's last stand.

[azrael]

Doesn't Gloval die in Robotech?

You never watched RT did you?

[Gubaba]

You never watched RT did you?

Wait...

WHO died...?

[VF5SS]

You should tell everyone the Carl Macek and the bottle of peroxide story.

[Gubaba]

You should tell everyone the Carl Macek and the bottle of peroxide story.

Judging by the responses here, I don't think these people are ready for that story...

[Einherjar]

Wait...

WHO died...?

The whole bridge crew of the Macross except Lisa (off-screen) unceremoniously.

[VF-15 Banshee]

Judging by the responses here, I don't think these people are ready for that story...

Tell! Tell! Tell!

[xrentonx]

Judging by the responses here, I don't think these people are ready for that story...

We are ready!

[akt_m]

I bet everybody will be laughing when it comes out.

[SuperSenpai]

Besides all of the legal issues surrounding Macross licensing, I think that any live action Robotech film would have to significantly deviate from the TV show in order to be coherent and logical to a contemporary adult audience. Let's face it, as much as nostalgia makes me look back fondly on Robotech, the original story elements that HG added were wholly unnecessary unless you wanted to link three unrelated TV shows together (and barely, at that), and they only serve to make the story more convoluted and inconsistent.

A lot of it had to do with giving such prominence to the alien technology when it was only incidental to the story line in the original Japanese anime. So the aliens are after the SDF-1 because it contains the last Protoculture matrix as well the secrets of Robotechnology? Well, why do they need it so badly? They seem to be doing ok without it. Heck, they managed to destroy an entire planet without it, and their space fold engines don't disappear on them! Not to mention the fact that their technology seems to be at least as sophisticated as (if not more than) anything on the SDF-1. Aren't the humans always saying how the aliens seem to possess much more powerful weapons than they do? In fact, in all three parts of Robotech the only thing that really gives the humans any advantage is the power of emotions (particularly love) and music -- something which was part of the original Macross anime anyway. So then Robotechnology is completely unnecessary. All the humans ever needed to do to win the war was beam a music video out into space with people kissing and problem solved.

Reading Jenius's post, I think a lot of the re-imagining that he proposes will probably be necessary -- to the point that I think it will only faintly resemble the original TV show. Let's be honest, the strength of the source material was what fueled the success of Robotech, not the additions from HG. So a re-imagined Robotech without the Macross trappings based purely on original HG/WB story concepts? Honestly, I see that as a disaster waiting to happen. Transformers and Pacific Rim are already mining the giant robot material, so Robotech will look like a Johnny-come-lately clone. And since they will have to deviate from the Macross material, the people looking for a nostalgia trip are going to feel like they were taken for a bait-and-switch, lured in with the name of a program they fondly remember from childhood only to be given a movie that barely resembles what they remember.

Then there's the fact that Battlestar Galactica also covered a lot of the same territory as Robotech:

Military-themed space opera? Check.

Fighter pilots as primary characters? Check.

Space dog-fighting? Check.

Destruction of home planet? Check.

Civilian refugees living on a military vessel? Check.

Love triangle? Check.

Inter-racial/species romance? Check.

Enemies living in cloned human bodies that make them vulnerable to human emotions? Check.

Edited February 28, 2013 by SuperSenpai