Christopher McQuarrie has been hired to turn the classic 1970s anime Space Cruiser Yamato, better known to audiences in the US as Starblazers, for Skydance Productions and Paramount Pictures.
The series told the story of a small group of soldiers who undertook a quest across the galaxy to retrieve a weapon that could repeal and repair the damage caused to Earth by an alien invasion. The series proved emmensly popular in Japan with several sequel series and theatrical film follow ups.
This is not the first time that an American studio has tried to turn the animated series into a live action feature. Disney tried their hand at a live action Starblazers back in the late 1990s, but Tab Murphy’s script was fairly atrocious.
A live action version was recently released in Japan. (You can read a reader’s review here.) My concern is that any US production could hold up a legitimate release of the Japanese version, which, going by the trailer and the longer clip below, is certainly worth checking out.
Via Deadline.
