Popcorn, Coke, and The Toon

I seem to be starting every article nowadays with an avarice stab at ‘Transformers 2’ or “‘Michael Bay” … Yes he now deserves his very own air quotes.

I am beginning to accept that my utmost favorite childhood memories have been crushed by “Michael Bay” and there is no hope in salvation from his disgusting ego making a debacle out of the third ‘Transformers’ film. In that vein I have been closely watching two other literary properties very close to my heart, that being ‘Robotech‘ and ‘Voltron‘. Both are about aliens and stunningly awesome robots.

The rights to ‘Robotech’ were acquired by Warner Brothers and is being produced by Tobey Maguire (Spiderman) and his Maguire Entertainment brand. After several writer responsibility changes, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar of ‘Smallville’ fame are the confirmed duo whilst Tom Rob Smith, a respected writer in British television, has also been rumoured to be on board as a writer. Maguire is set to take a leading acting role in the film which is intended to be a multi-film epic sci-fi tent pole sort of endeavor:

“We are very excited to bring Robotech to the big screen. There is a rich mythology that will be a great foundation for a sophisticated, smart and entertaining film.” – Tobey Maguire

Whilst ‘Robotech’ has been set in pre-production for a few years now, ‘Voltron’ has lingered from studio to studio for about four years now with interest spiking in it after the success of the first ‘Transformers’ film. The film is in development through Atlas Entertainment with principle producers Charles Roven (The Dark Knight), Richard Suckle, Steve Alexander acquiring the rights to make the film with an initial script penned by Justin Marks. The film is finally being pushed forward, check out this article/update from one of the producers talking to Risky Biz about the adaptation. It is expected that Warner Brothers, who are closely affiliated to Atlas, will take up ‘Voltron’ and its promising script which LatinoReview described as “a f****** masterpiece” and CinemaBlend chimed in calling it “a well put together, well intentioned, incredibly faithful Voltron script using modern sensibilities.”

Warner Brothers is sitting on two pots of gold in my opinion, and they better get moving on these projects. I have great faith in ‘Robotech’ turning out to be just fantastic, a trilogy akin to ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Star Wars’. Hefty praise for a project that is not even in development, but all the right sorts of simmering ingredients are there. Tobey Maguire is a very intelligent man who has is heart behind an epic story that portrays mankind overrun by an alien invasion bent on cultivating the planet. A group of rebels led by a former “space marine”, fight back with their morphing fighter jet/mecha/speed bike battle suits in a war to salvage earth. ‘Voltron’ on the other hand is a very alien concept and apart from wickedly cool five lion shaped robots combining to form a giant beast wielding a massive sword, doesn’t have much going for it in its run of the mill intergalactic war against evil spirits kinda story. Whilst I expect ‘Robotech’ to be utterly faithful to its source material, ‘Voltron’ will definitely veer off in to Hollywood mutilation territory and that usually goes everywhere but right.