Live-action 'Star Blazers' in the works

Fans of the hit 1970s anime "Star Blazers" (or "Space Battleship Yamato" in Japan) may have something to look forward to as Oscar winner Christopher McQuarrie has been tapped to write and direct a live-action film adaptation of the series.

 

 

A report on Deadline.com said Skydance Productions, which acquired the movie rights to the series in 2011, had initially tapped McQuarrie to only write the film.

 

"The intention is to hatch a franchise from a series that was ahead of its time, coming before 'Star Wars' and 'Battlestar Galactica.' It becomes another big-scale film for Skydance — which is coming off 'World War Z,' 'Star Trek: Into Darkness' and 'G.I. Joe: Retaliation' – with 'Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit' coming in January," Deadline.com reported.

 

Deadline.com added McQuarrie, Josh Kline, David Ellison and Dana Goldberg will produce, while Shouji Nizhizaki and Paul Schwake will be executive producers.

 

However, Slashfilm.com noted there is still no start date for the "Star Blazers" movie.

 

"(W)e can assume it’ll come some time after he (McQuarrie) wraps up 'Mission: Impossible 5,'" it added. 

 

"Star Blazers," which aired in the late 1970s, is the Americanized version of the Japanese anime "Space Battleship Yamato," which originally aired in 1974.

 

The original series is set in the year 2199, when an alien race, the Gamilas (Gamilons in Star Blazers) bombard Earth with radioactive meteorites, making the surface uninhabitable.

 

With only one year left before the radiation reaches Earth's survivors who had sought refuge underground, a message from the planet Iscandar offers help, along with blueprints for a faster-than-light engine.

 

Earth's survivors then build a spaceship out of the ruins of the Japanese World War II battleship Yamato, though in Star Blazers, the vessel is renamed the Argo.

 

During the one-year journey to Iscandar and back, the vessel's crew learn Gamilas is a sister planet of Iscandar and is dying, and its leader wanted to inhabit Earth.

 

Slashfilm.com said the franchise has since expanded to movies, comic books and video games. — TJD, GMA News