Sorry, Tobey Maguire. Despite having been attached to the project (at Warner Bros.) for what feels like forever, Variety reports today that Sony have now picked up the rights to the classic animated series, and are getting serious about making not just one Robotech movie, but lots of them.
They've already got Gianni Nunnari and Mark Canton (from 300) producing, with Michael Gordon (also from 300, as well as GI Joe) writing a screenplay.
Now, here's where it gets interesting. There is, of course, no such thing as "Robotech", which was the name given to three entirely separate Japanese animated series when they were lumped together in the 80s and sold (pretty shoddily) in the West as a single story.
While the second and third of those series have their fans, it's the first one screened in the West - known in Japan as Macross - that's the big one, and with its transforming fighters, pop music and giant Zentraedi enemies is the one most people imagine when they think of "Robotech".
Sony's comments seem to be suggesting that, thankfully, the over-arching "Robotech" plot is being overlooked (at least initially) in favour of doubling down on the Macross storyline, as it's the only one they mention in the Variety piece.
"'Robotech' is unique in that it has always been a marriage of spectacle with human characters that seem drawn from life," Columbia's Michael De Luca says of the deal. "That's why we are so excited to be working with Mark and Gianni as we move forward on this project. With a history that offers an epic love triangle, a renegade hero, and a world on the brink of extinction, 'Robotech' offers a wide scope and a rich and impressive universe where the story possibilities are endless."
The Variety story also says that Sony "views the project as a potential film franchise", as it "is seen as having the global appeal necessary to become a blockbuster property".
Fans of Macross in the West have long suffered under the ineptitude of Harmony Gold, the company that owns the rights to the Robotech series. Hopefully Sony's involvement and some serious cash money can go some way towards making up for that.
If, you know, these movies ever actually get made...