Sci-Fi Storm

This has me excited…Sony gave a press release today announcing that they have obtained the rights to the popular Robotech anime series with an eye on turning it into a film franchise!

Robotech was released in the U.S. in 1985, produced by Harmony Gold USA in partnership with Tatsunoko Production Company, and was actually three separate anime series (“Super Dimension Fortress Macross”, “Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross”, and “Genesis Climber MOSPEADA”), dubbed and edited to have a common plot line, showing three “generations” of characters. The common theme in the series is what is called “robotechnology” (a.k.a. “mecha”) – vehicles and spaceships which could transform into robots, which allowed the humans to take on aliens of immense size. It also spawned a number of direct-to-video movies.

According to Michael de Luca, Sony/Columbia Pictures head of production, “Robotech is unique in that it has always been a marriage of spectacle with human characters that seem drawn from life. 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.”

I always thought the premise of the first series was perfect for a film or TV franchise – an enormous spaceship crashes on Earth, the crew dead and containing advanced and unknown technologies which get adapted by humans who take the ship back into space – and into battle…

Hey Sony, I’m still waiting for an English-language live version of StarBlazers…

Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, the writing team behind Iron Man, are working on a re-imagining of the 1988 film (that also spawned a one-season TV series and several TV movies) Alien Nation for Fox.

The original film dealt with the integration of the alien “Newcomers” (if you were being nice – “slags” if you weren’t) into American society, several years after their enormous spaceship became stranded on Earth with its cargo of slaves, and the abusive “Overlords” – Newcomers who kept the slaves in line for an unknown authority. Detective Sykes (James Caan), a bigoted veteran of the force who just lost his partner in a shootout with Newcomers, is forced to take on the newly promoted Sam Francisco (Mandy Patinkin) – who he immediately re-dubs “George” (Newcomers were often assigned human names by bored government workers…) The two then investigate a similar crime, and find a much bigger conspiracy to exploit the aliens. Aside from the twist of the aliens, it was basically a reluctant buddy cop story.

I personally found the TV series to be a bit better than the film. As much as I like Patinkin, and Caan is perfect as a cantankerous cop, the interaction in the series, where Sykes was played by Gary Graham and Francisco by Eric Pierpoint, seemed more natural and playful. Graham’s Sykes is younger and has to address his growing affection for Newcomer neighbor Cathy (Terri Treas). It also deals a lot more with the problems of integration, Newcomer family life, and the origins of the Newcomers.

While plot details for the new version are not yet being released, it is expected that this movie will deal with the aliens’ arrival on Earth, which wasn’t really addressed in the film.

Marcum and Holloway are no strangers to re-imagining films…they were behind last year’s Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles, and a remake of Highlander for Summit that is still in development.

In this preview for the next episode of Helix, Winger and Alan uncover the Navy’s plan to stop the virus once and for all. Tune in for “Plan B” Friday night at 10/9c on Syfy!

Director Steven Spielberg will return to film a movie for Warner Bros after a 14 year absence…he is taking the reins of Ready Player One, based on the [asin=0307887448]popular novel[/asin] by Ernest Cline. Spielberg’s last movie for the studio was A.I.: Artificial Intelligence

The story takes place in 2044, and Wade Watts, a young gamer, seeks to unravel the clues left within the massive game universe of Oasis, which the late creator left as a challenge to find someone worthy of of taking over his estate – including the corporation and the game itself. When Watts closes in on the first clue, he discovers that others are willing to kill for it…

Zac Penn is writing the script, after it was started by Cline and Eric Eason (A Better Life).

Director Bryan Singer announced via Instagram that a new mutant will join the cast…Jubilation Lee, better known as Jubilee, the Chinese American girl with pyrotechnic abilities. She will be played by newcomer Lana Condor.

The character has in fact made appearances in the movies before – in the first three X-Men movies, she appeared only as a background character in the classrooms but never identified by name except in a deleted scene.

It also looks like we will get the younger versions of Cyclops, Storm and Jean Grey as well.

In 1987, Leland Goines comes across the preserved corpse responsible for millions of deaths. Check out the preview below, and tune in for “Shonin” Friday at 9/8c on Syfy! And don’t forget the recap of last week’s episode…