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James Wan In Talks To Direct Upcoming 'Robotech' Movie

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The director of the recent and very successful Furious 7 is apparently in talks to helm the upcoming live action movie adaptation of Robotech.

In an actually interesting move, Sony Pictures seem to have a semblance of a clue by talking with James Wan. He has not only an interesting backlog of varied and engaging films, from Saw to Insidious and The Conjuring, but can also handle high-octane action with movies like Furious 7.

For anyone that knows Macross, of which Robotech is ostensibly an English localized version, then you’ll know that high octane action coupled with nuanced characterization is very much the cornerstone of what made it work.

So I am genuinely curious to see how Wan might handle the Ichiro Itano styled dogfights between the transforming variable fighters and their giant alien antagonists as well as the human narrative that underpins all of that.

That said there is still one major elephant in the room amongst all this; the absence of Shoji Kawamori’s involvement is worrying.

Both the creator and the main mecha designer behind Macross, Kawamori's designs and storytelling were instrumental in the success of the original show. His variable fighter designs alone (shown above) are hugely iconic and arguably one of the major reasons behind Robotech’s enduring popularity amongst its fans.

While I can sympathize with people who are wary of George Lucas-esque creative figures, especially after the appalling Star Wars prequels, Kawamori is not at all like that. As he has been making numerous and thoroughly excellent Macross series (among many other things) since the 80s original.

The latest of these being the hugely engaging Macross Frontier that not only saw a fantastically paced TV series but also some pretty great movies too.

Put simply, Kawamori needs to be working on this new Robotech movie. Without him and his mecha design expertise, they'll lose the core of what made this franchise popular in the first place.

In any case, the news of Wan potentially being on-board with this movie offers a glimmer of hope that Sony Pictures might not completely screw this up.

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