'Spider-Man' Writers Sign for Live Action 'Robotech'

I wouldn't consider the Smallville (ex)show runners "geek cred", quite the opposite actually. Granted Spiderman 2 was the best of the franchise But everything else they are responsible for are the anti-thesis of geek sensibility. Having Lawerence (Empire Strikes back) Kasdan as the writer gave me hope that the Macross saga would be amazing. Now I can see extended set pieces of Min Mei singing; her cousin Kyle looking handsome......yeah that's about it. Maybe they are fans and can cobble something interesting together but I wouldn't expect much more than Lost in Space meets Returner.

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Well maybe a live action version would drum up enough intrest in the original to merit a nice blu ray release

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Millar and Gough had more then a writing stint on Smallville they were the showrunners up until it's latest season which has been infinitely better in their absence. Their contribution to Robotech is not welcomed.

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Miller and Gough have a special way of ruining things we love, ie...Superman. I'm voting now to not have Kristen Kruek as Min Mei. I can just hear it " Stage fright go away, this is my big day, this is my chance to be a star."

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Let's see, they replaced the writer who wrote EMPIRE STRIKES BACK with two muppets who are responsible for Smallville, Dragon Emperor and Spider-man 2?

What's this about geek cred?! How much more geek creditability can you get than the BEST MOVIE OF THE ENTIRE STAR WARS CANON!

What dimension am I living in?! They wrote Dragon Emperor! Jesus Christ!

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as somone who hasn't seen the robotech anime, i'm all for it. i'm pretty sure if i was a fan i'd be worried knowing that hollywood usually remakes these kinds of things with the general audience in mind and never the hardcore fans. with the stuff that they've done with transformers, it will definitely be a huge movie.

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Okay, Robotech is a bastardization of the Japanese anime Macross (an ongoing series with the most recent being Macross Frontier). So Hollywood is making a live action movie of a bastardized script...does anyone else feel dirty about this?

I don't mind calling it Robotech, as long as they stick to the original anime storyline. If they can pull of the veritech fighters, trademark scattering missiles, massive space battles and the epic end-of humanity scale of this space opera, then I think it'll be better than Transformers

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Am I the only one who really doesn't want Tobey Maguire in this movie? That guy should realize that he really isn't an action star. The reason he was a star in an action movie was that the character he played was pretty much CG during the action sequences, and when it was him he was entirely covered by his costume. The guy doesn't have the look or the charisma to play kick ass characters; he should go back to doing smaller budget/independent movies. Please, never another scene of him looking tough/determined/constipated.

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Millar and Gough did excellent work on Smallville. It was when they left that the show jumped the shark. Now the show is more about the Green Arrow and his group of JLA wannabes in their lame hoodie costumes.
Robotech has a shot at real success with those guys on it.

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I was extremely excited when I heard Lawrence Kasden and Chuck Roven were on board with this. I've heard a lot of negativity about these two writers with 'geek cred', but I hope they use a lot of what Kasden wrote already, as a draft. Robotech has enormous potential if done correctly, and could make a good trilogy if based on the events surrounding the periods of each Super Dimensional Fortress (SD1, SD2, SDF3), and like Independence Day (ID4) or Jurassic Park (JP) they could use these acronyms for the title of the film. Thats very Hollywood, I think. Super Dimensional Fortress Macross sounds like a more catchy title than Robotech, I admit. Or maybe Robotech: Force of Arms. Something that will bring people to the screen. Then they can focus on their (what I thought to be) fantastic Spiderman 2 soap opera scenes, which I think is what made Robotech the anime such an appealing show for its time. At that time I was watching Looney Toons, so you can image the shock I got from discovering the magic of Robotech, with the lovable characters dying left and right, and Rick stressing over Minmei and Lisa.

Minmei and her singing was crucial to the plot of the show, its what sparked the Zentradi's interest in the human culture. It would be a shame, despite what some fans thing, if they don't have Minmei singing in the movie. It could be modern. I dont think that should be a problem. Its not exactly a fictional concept, a girl singing and trying to be a star. But here's my idea to make her character a little better for the movie. She is a young girl who gets taken under the wing of a professional singer, Jamis Merin, and eventually beats her teacher in the beauty pageant, rising to instant fame. Max and Miriya already have an interesting relationship, so no changes there please. Lisa and her ex-bf should still be left the same in the movie, maybe briefly mentioned, but Lisa and Rick's relationship could be made into a deeper conflict by the fact that she is his direct superior officer and Rick they are nearly court martialed by one of the 'political' human commanders that occasionally creates problems on board the SD1, kind of like the role of the mayor of Macross, Colonel Edwards, or the senator that commissioned the reconstruction of the battle fortress.

I hope they don't leave out Ben, Claudia, Kyle, (Ambassador) Exedore, Admiral Hayes, Doctor Lang (and the scene where he discusses the disappearance of the protoculture matrix, which makes the humans and their ship expendable to the aliens from that point), and some of the other support characters. I think Sammy and the gang, and their alien spy bfs, could undergo some realistic change and I wouldnt complain much. Rick, Roy, Gloval should be unaltered or Robotech fans might burn the theater down, just a warning.

I would be pleased if half of the movie was based on the mars-base, the capture and escape of the humans aboard the zentraedi flagship, and the last battle. The other half of the film should remain character-driven, with the love triangle, alien-to-human attraction, and the relationship between Lisa and her father (which will HAVE to take up a little bit of screen time to build Lisa's character and introduce the Grand Canon). Also, bringing Admiral Hayes more into the plot would be amazing. In the comics, during the global civil war, Gloval and Hayes were naval arch-enemies. I think that would make for an awesome opening scene, a real Top Gun moment, with Roy launching off the aircraft carrier to tangle with the Russians over the seas, then just before the dogfight ends a light fills the sky and the alien battle fortress enters the earth's atmosphere and abruptly ends the civil war, literally in the middle of the the battle.

I think all these things would add more conflict to the plot outside of the alien-battling action scenes which are blockbuster enough that I don't see much change.

What do you think? Maybe WB should have ME write the script. I would too if I had the time.

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