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Toby Maguire is Rick Hunter?
Monday, September 10th, 2007 at 10:57 pm by Jami
Reader Charles Wallace hipped me to Toby Maguire’s announcement that he’s producing and looking to star in a live-action adaptation of… le sigh… Robotech.
Deep breath.
Okay. I have this sort of love-hate relationship with Robotech. I was already in to giant robots by the time Robotech hit after school television. But I had never before fell so fast into fandom as I did with Robotech. I watched every episode at least twice. I grabbed all the Robotech Art Books and studied every character and mech design. I traced Lisa Hayes and Rick Hunter night after night to learn how to draw characters. I dare say that without Robotech, I wouldn’t be able to draw half the things I do.
It wasn’t until years later that I learned the awful truth. My beloved Robotech was in fact three separate anime mashed into one big pile of recycled shit! Remember when you found out that Santa Claus was really your mommy stuffing presents under the tree? It felt like that. I felt cheated somehow, that somehow I had based a good portion of my life in fandom around a sham. Broken and disappointed, I turned my back on Robotech (although, that Clash of the Bionoids movie is still one of my favorite OVAs).
It wasn’t until after college that I got over my distaste for Robotech. UDON had landed some work doing the Robotech comic for Wildstorm and some production art for the Robotech game so I decided to give my old fandom a try again, at least to support my friends. The comics were gorgeous, the game was fun, and I even sprung for the soundtrack. Maybe this Robotech thing wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. Well, at least not the Macross portion of it.
Okay, so let’s get in to this movie thing. The one thing that Robotech really fucked the rotted cooch of a dead puppy was turning Protoculture into a power source. Protoculture in the original Macross was the first civilization in the known universe. It’s a significant revelation when the Zentradi and Maltrandi discover they share an origin with humans. In Robotech, it’s like a new battery that lets you transform? How does that make any sense? What, diesel isn’t good enough? Or nuclear? I don’t care so much that Maguire wants to be Rick Hunter. That’s fine. I’m more interested in who he wants to cast for Lisa Hayes and Minmay.
What really worries me is the Protoculture angle. I would love to see the implications of aliens and humans sharing an origin play out on the big screen. That would bring a theme that could elevate the story from being just a bunch of giant robots beating each other to a film that examines the human condition.
[Via Hollywood Reporter]
