By Ryan Parsons | Image property of respective holders, Hollywood Reporter.
Robotech
Warner Bros. is expanding outside the box in a search for the next franchise to adapt into a feature film. Their crossbeams have landed on the popular anime Robotech with Tobey Maguire removing his Spidey mask to produce and possibly star.
Spidey Eyeing Robotech
Warner Bros. has recently finished a lengthy negotiation for the screen rights to Robotech, an animation that features giant robots known as mechas. Maguire has agreed to produce under his Maguire Entertainment banner and is also eyeing the title role of what could be the next tentpole franchise for the actor.
"We are very excited to bring 'Robotech' to the big screen," Maguire said. "There is a rich mythology that will be a great foundation for a sophisticated, smart and entertaining film."
A sci-fi epic, Robotech takes place at a time when Earth has developed giant robots from the technology on an alien spacecraft that crashed on a South Pacific isle. Mankind is forced to use the technology to fend off three successive waves of alien invasions. The first invasion concerns a battle with a race of giant warriors who seek to retrieve their flagship's energy source known as "protoculture," and the planet's survival ends up in the hands of two young pilots.
Sound strangely familiar to Transformers? Well, there are definitely some similarities -- aka giant robots -- but Robotech will take its own approach. The live-action adaptation does owe credit to Transformers, however, whose recent box office success has spurred other studios into searching for their own giant-robot movie. Regency has picked up the 1980s Japanese anime series Voltron, with Mark Gordon attached to produce.
No start date has been given on Robotech, but Craig Zahler has already been tapped to write the screenplay.
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