James Wan has had massive success in horror with Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring, but it’s Furious 7 that’s made Hollywood sit up and take notice that this is a guy that can handle a big, tentpole movie. Recently rumours emerged that he’s in contention to direct Aquaman and now Deadline reports that he’s in talks to hRobotech.
Sony Pictures is behind the long-gestating anime adaptation, which is envisioned as a sprawling sci-fi epic. The original animated series takes place at a time when Earth has developed giant robots from the technology on an alien spacecraft that crashed on a South Pacific island.
Mankind is forced to use the technology to fend off three successive waves of alien invasions. The first invasion concerns a battle with a race of giant warriors who seek to retrieve their flagship’s energy source known as “protoculture,” and the planet’s survival ends up in the hands of two young pilots.
The likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire have previously been involved in the film, but it doesn’t appear any actors are currently attached.
Warner Bros. seems to think there’s a lot of money in giant robots, as they’ve already got Pacific Rim hitting cinemas this summer, and now they’re moving forward with another mecha movies they’ve had percolating for several years, Robotech.