Christopher McQuarrie To Write Live-Action Star Blazers Movie

Monday, February 21st, 2011 at 3:30pm
  • 24 Comments
 
Christopher McQuarrie To Write Live-Action <i>Star Blazers</i> Movie  

Skydance Productions, the company that co-financed True Grit, is in talks to acquire the live-action film rights to the popular 1970s and ’80s anime series Star Blazers, Deadline reports. Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects, The Wolverine) will be hired to write the screenplay.

A dubbed and partly rewritten adaptation of the Space Battleship Yamato anime franchise, Star Blazers centered on a massive spaceship built from the remains of a World War II battleship to travel to another planet in hopes of securing a device that can save an Earth ravaged by alien invaders. The series aired in North America for three seasons, from May 1979 to December 1984, for a total of 77 episodes.

A live-action remake of Space Battleship Yamato was released in December in Japan, ousting Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 from the top spot at the box office. There have been two other attempts to get a live-action Star Blazers off the ground, first by Disney in the mid-1990s and then by Benderspink in 2006.

Skydance is headed by David Ellison, son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison and an acrobatic pilot with a fondness for aviation projects. The company is co-financing several projects at Paramount, including Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol and the Jack Ryan franchise reboot. Skydance is also developing Dark Horse’s The Strange Case of Hyde for film.

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  • Sijo

    “Yamato” was really a Science Fiction take on World War II, with the Japanese as the good guys. Even the name of the spaceship is the ancient name for Japan! It would be ironic to see Westerners recreate the story as a movie.

  • stk

    Q: Do we honestly need a live action version of the watered-down Yamato, when a live-action Yamato already exists?

    A: No.

  • pDUB

    Q: Is there anything that Hollywood execs wouldn’t do to make some money?

    A: No.

  • Emb021

    Yeah. Just do a dupe of the new live action movie and release it here. We don’t need a remake of it (tho including the Star Blazers theme song would be neat).

  • Emb021

    Really???

    So in WWII the Japanese were attacked by the US & other western powers, huh? And threatened with destruction??

  • darrell

    What? They just released a live-action film based on Starblazers/Yamato like, five minutes ago. Hollywood is out of its mind.

  • DCR

    Yes, but all the actor are Japanese! It sucks! :/
    It’s not so surprising from the country that made Power Rangers and do remakes of foreign films barely 1 years after they’re out. cough Let me in cough

  • DCR

    NO, it happens in the future. Humanity is attacked by alien and the Japaneses transform their old battleship Yamato into a space ship to fight the invasion.
    Of course, some could argue that the alien are a metaphor for americans, but I think it’s reading a bit too muchin it.

  • Addad

    I remember that show.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_2Y74E3KOEWWSGRCZ6YQJDQJWEY Glenn B

    Why? Space Battleship Yamato has already been made! And this movie is probably better than any movie an American would be able to make on Yamato anyways so what’s the point?

  • Mr_Wayne

    Why don’t they do something that hasn’t been done already like “Voltron” or “Robotech”?

  • Guest

    Nice…can we get a quality localization of Legend of Galactic heroes now?

    It’s be nice to have the rest of the West realize what real quality Sci-Fi is like again.

  • demoncat_4

    about time been hoping even if its holly wood trying to cash in and totaly going to wind up totaly not staying true to the source material. that star blazers aka battleship yamato would get a chance at live action. though also suprised this is happening since some say the rights are still being untangled by this studio and Lucas films.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_2ZX7DCLJRKDEJWWH2VFB7M2NAI P

    It’s a similar situation

  • 200328sept

    You have the original Japanese version, and the Japanese live action film. You don’t need anything else!

  • Dswynne1

    We already have an American version. It’s called “Battlestar Galactica 2003″.

  • Emb021

    DCR- I know what Yamato is about. I just don’t see the WWII comparison. And certainly trying to equate the Gamilons with Americans is a biggg stretch.

  • Emb021

    P- no its not.

  • Ma83982

    Anime is the next gold mine after superhero comics dry up!

    Just heard about Cobra Space Adventure. Cheesecake adventure that screams R-rated live action film.

    Ghost in the Shell is still in the script stage I believe. Cowboy Bebop’s script is getting a re-write.

    And Cameron wants Battle Angels done after Avatar. If he makes that a hit studios will flood the market with anime to live action pics in about 7-8 years. Depending on how long the Avatar trilogy takes to get done.

  • http://twitter.com/Dawnell_do Dawnell_do

    This could be entertaining movie, if done by the right people.

  • mike

    the gamalons arent quite americans but they all have different color hair whereas the star force all have black hair except nova brown and avatar gray.the mushroom cloud is seen many times and people are forced to live underground because of radiation and bombing the yamato is sent as one ship on an almost impossible mission against the gamalon fleet.( the paralells are undeniable) as was the origional yamato without ww2 there is no starblazers..the aligories arent quite one for one but youd have to have no knowlwdge of history not to see them.as for an american remake lets just hope they preserve the overt militirism that made the origional great otherwise will will have a transformers in space and no one wants that crap,seriously if you are over 10 and like transformers you are a retard

  • mike

    cause they suck,starblazers is the father of starwars

  • mike

    they say the live action fil sucked

  • Derek Wildstar

    Just watched the japanese live action starblazers and was EXTREMELY disappointed!!  TERRIBLE acting, VERY poor storyline and character development.  Deslock wasn’t even in it!!  The “gamillons” were these slightly blue skinned alien bug like creatures.  Totally missed the whole sub theme of the starblazers series which was parodying the ultra militarism of the Gamillons!!  Let’s all hope that if Hollywood does a starblazers flick that they at least KEEP TO THE MAIN THEMES!!

 

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