Tobey Maguire Eyes a New Sci-Fi Franchise
Filed under: Action, Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Warner Brothers, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand
Warner Bros. is wicked smart: They looked and they said, "What's some of the hottest stuff out there right now that we don't have?" The answers: Giant f**king robots and Tobey f**king Maguire. And so Warner Bros. did what they do best -- they went out and picked up the rights to the anime classic Robotech, brought Maguire on to produce through his Maguire Entertainment and are currently seducing him into starring in the lead role. Better yet -- they're also eying this as their next tentpole sci-fi franchise. Whether or not this means Maguire will not reprise his role as Peter Parker in a Spider-Man 4 is hard to say; yet, if he does decide to star in the film (with plans on making it a franchise), I'd imagine chances of him donning the Spidey outfit for a fourth go-round are pretty slim.
I'm not too familiar with Robotech; The Hollywood Reporter tell us it was a "cartoon series during the 1980s from Harmony Gold USA and Tatsunoki Prods. It was re-edited and re-dialogued to combine three Japanese anime series to give the producers enough episodes to air as a daily syndicated series." The story apparently takes place during a time when the Earth has used alien technology to create giant robots in order to use as defense against three successive waves of alien invasions. Giant robots versus aliens, with Tobey Maguire using his small-town charms to kick tons of ass? Yup, I dig it. Craig Zahler will write the script, although there's no indication whether Warners will want to go live-action with this or stick with something in the CGI realm. Which would you rather see: Tobey in Robotech, Tobey in Spidey 4 or Tobey in both?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-07-2007 @ 11:53AM
Samuel McConnell said...
I -am- familiar with Robotech, and this does not make me happy at all. I guess Maguire -could- play Rick Hunter, but he's certainly not the man I would pick for the job. But that's probably just because I don't think he's that great of an actor.
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9-07-2007 @ 11:57AM
scott said...
toby as rik hunter... i can see it!!! he kinda has those big anime eyes.
...and I nominate Ziyi Zhang for Minmei!
if this is done right it could be awesome. i'm thinking 3D IMAX beowulf-style.
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9-07-2007 @ 6:33PM
Sourtone said...
The first series wouldn't translate well - at the moment they discover the aliens are, essentially, giant humans the movie would nose dive.
The second series wouldn't translate well - it still has giant aliens and it requires knowing what happened in the first series that put them on earth
The third series would be cool to see on film since it departs from the whole "giant human alien" mess and goes with truly alien aliens... but it has a decentralized cast of characters which waters down a movie
Personally I hope they don't try and "encapsulate" any of the seris in a film since any attempt to do so would be a dis-service and invariably end up sucking (see: Transformers).
The best course would be to tack a whole new storyline to the Robotech epic.
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9-07-2007 @ 12:18PM
Hollywood Ron said...
Spider-Man 4 will be better off without Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and especially Sam Raimi (and I thought the last statement would never come out of my mouth).
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9-07-2007 @ 12:37PM
John R said...
Yes, Macross! It's about time, but Maguire as Rick (Hiro)? I just don't know. However, this could definitely work as live action as Transformers demonstrates.
Except, Robotech (or Macorss) would have much deeper characters and what's that called...a good plot. I'd recommend they try and stick to the original orchestral music too:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=P39cFXRU8uU
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9-07-2007 @ 1:36PM
Gyon said...
Maguire as Yellow Dancer! How magnificent! Oscar-nom material.
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9-07-2007 @ 6:50PM
Cyberphin said...
You lost me at Robotech.
Macross and Robotech are vastly different even though it uses the same visual footage. Harmony Gold (I hear the boos of thousands of Anime fans)hacked a great series into a confusing mess. I still can't believe people are trying to make something of this piece of junk.
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9-10-2007 @ 2:49AM
Great White Snark said...
Yep, it was just a matter of time at this point. The company that owns the Robotech rights has been saying for a while that the Robotech movie getting made was all but 100% contingent on Transformers doing well. Guess what? Transformers did really well.
http://www.greatwhitesnark.com/2007/06/04/san-jose-super-con-2007-robotech-scoops/
Sadly, I bet this means we'll see a Gobot movie announced, soon, too...
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