Robotech Live-Action Film Has A Director

By David Wharton | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Robotech

As crazy as Hollywood is to develop any property with more than two-dozen fans, it’s kind of surprising we haven’t heard much about the live-action Robotech movie. Its been in the works since 2007, and along the way it’s had some genuinely talented screenwriters associated with it, including Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back), but up until now there’s never been a director attached. It’s been ages since we’ve heard anything at all…until today. Robotech has found a director, and he’s…well, you’ve probably never heard of him, honestly.

The Hollywood Reporter says that commercials director Nic Mathieu is in talks to take the gig. His commercial work is said to be very CGI-intensive, so he should have an edge when it comes to the over-the-top action you’d hope for out of a Robotech movie. He’s also attached to another big-screen science fiction project, David Koepp’s The Wind.

It’s common for a screenplay to bring in a new writer when a director comes on board, but there’s no word yet if that’s the plan for Robotech. Hopefully the project will keep its newfound momentum and actually make it to theaters a few years down the line. Maybe if Pacific Rim is a big hit this summer it can coast on Hollywood’s inevitable rush to greenlight every script with giant robots in it.

For those of you who didn’t grow up watching Robotech on Saturday mornings, here’s the synopsis from THR:

A sprawling 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 island. 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.