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EXCLUSIVE: David Ellison’s Skydance Productions is negotiating a rights deal to turn the 1970s animated science fiction TV series Star Blazers into a large scale live action feature. Ellison will hire Christopher McQuarrie to write the script, with Ellison and Josh C. Kline producing with McQuarrie. The series was based on the Japanese anime series Space Battleship Yamato. Both are described as “space opera,” involving alien invasions, the near extinction of the human race, and a last dash journey through space to save the planet.
Ellison started Skydance with hopes he could emulate the studio-aligned-producer-who-can-put-up-50% model that Thomas Tull’s Legendary Pictures has succeeded with at Warner Bros. Ellison made a deal with Paramount Pictures in late 2009 to co-finance four to six pictures per year, and then raised a reported $350 million in debt and equity funding. His Paramount deal has gotten off to a flying start: Skydance funded half of True Grit, the $30 million Joel and Ethan Coen-directed Western that is up for 10 Oscars, including Best Picture. More importantly to Ellison’s investors, True Grit has so far grossed $165 million domestic, with foreign still rolling out.
Ellison is the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison and an accomplished acrobatic pilot who has a particular appetite for aviation projects (though his first foray as actor-producer, the Tony Bill-directed Flyboys, landed with a thud). Skydance headquarters are currently at the Santa Monica Airport, housed in a hangar that overlooks Ellison’s array of stunt planes., but he will soon move to offices on the Paramount lot.
Skydance has fast become a key player for Paramount, a studio that has been funding its pictures piecemeal since its slate financing arrangement with Melrose 2 dried up, and Paramount walked away from a $450 million slate deal with Deutsche Bank in 2008 because the studio found the deal point onerous in an unstable credit market. Just like Tull did at Warner Bros, Ellison’s slate is a mix of projects brought to him by Paramount, and others that he’s taken the active hand in developing. Among the Paramount projects Skydance is co-financing is Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, the rebooted Jack Ryan franchise that is undergoing a Steve Zaillian rewrite, with Chris Pine starring and Jack Bender directing, My Mother’s Curse, the Dan Fogelman-scripted comedy that has Ann Fletcher attached to direct and Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen as potential stars, an untitled comic pitch being written by David Caspe that Charlize Theron will star in and produce, and the Shane Salerno-scripted License to Steal, about high end repo agents who reclaim play toys of the wealthy, including jets and speedboats. He separately is developing Strange Case of Hyde with Dark Horse comic, but hasn’t yet set that at a studio.
Ellison has a Top Gun sequel percolating, which would potentially also be written by McQuarrie, a steady presence on Tom Cruise pictures. Cruise is currently starring in Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, which Skydance is co-financing.
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Folks,
How come no mention of the big budget Japanese feature film of the same material released back on December 1st to much acclaim, still rolling out internationally? Sloppy reporting.
I find the fact that Hollywood attempting a remake or re-imagine of a classic Japanese series ( although a little dated) funny seeing as though that they cannot even remake there own staple brands of Sci-Fi / Comic genres .. Spider man … Superman … Alien/ Predator .
How many people actually voted on these re-starts? I know I didn’t , those who went out of there way to pay good money to see the new were disappointed .. not all but most . So before someone says lets take this in a new direction , take a serious vote on WHO should be doing the remake , WHY it should be done and lastly , WILL we as the public benefit from the brain trust out there saying they can do it better .
Take the really well made Japanese movie just released , dub it in english or subtitle it and play it here . Us as fans outnumber the knowing public 3 to 1 … after all we know what we are supposed to be watching .
There IS an live action Japanese release -I’ve seen the trailer. Why not do Battle of the Planets instead?
Or Captain Harlock, Space Pirate? Maybe Cyborg 009. To do an american/english verison of an existing film to me is wasteful, as huge as anime is there has to be another title that’s crying out for an big budget american remake.At least with G-Force/Battle of the Planets it’ll get both the superhero and the anime fanboys.
Think about the Super Setai Series translated here into Power Rangers, not like we haven’t done it before.
Always loved this series and the original japanese movie as well. Can be a great franchise for them, with the first movie saving earth and then the sequel battling the planet empire.
Funny, was really glad this guy helped True Grit get made and now doubly happy it was a hit because now he as the cash to do this.
uh, he had the cash to do anything BEFORE True Grit’s success.
He didn’t need the cash… Re-read who it is.
He needed the credibility though.
Hiring McQuarrie ain’t much. It’s nice that he’s working again but his sabbatical was a lot like the unemployment line – he didn’t pick it, it picked him.
Maybe Larry Ellison’s kid is bright? The content in Star Blazers has massive cinematic potential.
Nikki/Mike – Poor choice of artwork for this article. That’s not the original Argo (or Yamato) which would/should be featured in a potential film. (Or at least, let’s hope they don’t screw it up and decide to mess with the design of the ship.)
I, too, wondered why they’d do this with the Japanese movie out. Frankly, I think the Japanese do better Japanese SF stories than Americans do Japanese SF, if you get my meaning.
But thanks for the article. It did have interesting background on the financing game in Hollywood, which I hadn’t known. I don’t mean to sound too naive when I suggest studios should work toward being able to self-finance their features; I suppose that would be too much against the grain of the way public companies do everything short-term.
Sounds like Ellison is following the Legendary model well franchise material that fan boys will hype up and the masses will flock to. This franchise sounds cool, also like to see Skydance come up with new franchises based off scripts made purely for the screen and not based on source material. Think: Alien, Terminator, Underworld
Someday, someone might point us in the direction of a breakout developed by Legendary for WB. Not sure it’s any more than a piggyback off the Warner slate in spite of the hype and taking of credit
I was going off 300 and Dark Knight but maybe u kno more about the situation. From the window it looks like a good franchise fanboy shop but u might know some stuffI dont know.
The real story here is the Japanese intellectual property culture. Just wait: eventually STAR BLAZERS/BATTLESHIP: YAMATO and ROBOTECH/THE SUPER DIMENSION FORTRESS MACROSS will be produced and people will wake up to the fact hat these projects are ridiculously derivative of one another.
For the savvy, haven’t you ever wondered by ROBOTECH’s Rick Hunter’s veritech fighter is identical to TRANSFORMERS’ Starscream? [The Hasbro original, not the Dreamworks-Bay POS]. The answer is that Harmony Gold bought all the ROBOTECH rights for like $100K in the early 80s in a purportedly tricky contract and now generates about $100M in merchandising revenue annually. The Japanese creators sued and eventually the Japanese supreme court refused to enforce the copyright that Harmony Gold acquired. So anyone can rip off the visuals from that series, because the Japanese will not honor HG’s contract. I was not present for the creation of Starscream at Hasbro, but I owned both toys as a kid, and the similarities are not incidental. Ultimately, the farther you look into this issue, the more you get a sense that Japan is a corrupt place to do IP business and copying is rewarded.
To wit: STAR BLAZERS and ROBOTECH both feature the prominent use of a large carrier craft retrofitted for use by humans against aliens–in YAMATO its the actual Japanese battleship Yamato retrofitted with spacefaring technology, in ROBOTECH it’s an alien ship retrofitted for humans, with American fighter jets retrofitted with alien technology.
Retrofitted earth ship? check.
Big blue-skinned aliens? check.
Big Space opera at the command of a gruff bearded caucasian wearing 19th century naval uniform? check.
And the good guys uniforms are all but identical.
The only project that feels original in this category is G-FORCE/BATTLE OF THE PLANETS [known in Japan as SCIENCE NINJA TEAM GATCHAMAN]. And in that case, the conscience-shocking apparent copying goes in the other direction: that series was created in 1972 and the parallels to a certain 20th Century Fox release in Summer 1977 [not DAMNATION ALLEY] are impossible to deny: there’s an idealist male lead, a dark male lead, a princess, a big guy, some comic relief, an old sage… the bad guy wears a cowl, builds superweapons, leads an endlesss army of uniformed soldiers and talks to his leader via a staticky viewscreen. Some six years ago, Comic Con showed the lost, banned episode of GATCHAMAN that never aired in the US, where you find out that Zoltan, the dude in the cowl is the idealistic male lead’s father.
For my money, I’d only invest in ROBOTECH. It has the best story, largest scale, most profitable merchandising revenue stream and the fewest laughable elements. It also branches off from our present day, while STAR BLAZERS is a Godzilla-like parable for getting nuked. Granted, YAMATO was created in 1979 and MACROSS in 1982, so ROBOTECH is technically the copycat, but it doesn’t matter. ROBOTECH kicks ass and has an unforgettable musical score.
Correction: ‘YAMATO’ was created in 1974.
Nerd.
Star Blazers has the fewest laughable elements?
Macross, robotech, whatever, is the one with pop singers using the power of song to defeat aliens. Are they going to incorporate that at all into the movie or is it just going to be straight robot planes vs aliens?
Donning the anime nerd cap for a sec…
Don’t you mean “Identical to Skyfire” there? Skyfire is a veritech fighter that was brought in later, Starscream was an original Transformer… I remember catching the distinction when a friend of mine got the Skyfire toy, and it was identical to my Robotech models.
Ok, anime nerd cap off, resume regularly scheduled programming…
It’s actually not skyfire, Jetfire is the official Transformers G1 series name for the robotech/veritech fighter.
Finally, this is awesome. I have heard they were trying to make this into a movie for years. The characters and stories from the original series will make an awesome series of films that could easily rival the early Star Wars trilogy. I always imagined Johnny Depp would play Derek Wildstar and Sean Connery as Captain Avatar, but that was a while ago. I can’t wait to see this movie, I hope they stay true to the series and seeing the Argo and the wave motion gun in live action will be epic.
The studio needs him more than the other way around now. He can renegotiate with strength.
One of my happiest memories of childhood was racing home to watching Star Blazers after school. Hadn’t thought of it until reading this piece. I usually hate this kind of stuff, but I will be first in line. The theme song is bouncing around my melon already.
The fact is the Japanese have already done a live action version of this movie. Personally I am more anxious to get that one here in our theaters rather than doing our version. Disney thankfully didn’t get their hands on doing this project as they were going to screw it up. I don’t have much confidence in Hollywood trying to do it because some how or another they’ll screw it up.
However if our version could be done differently from Japanese meaning that it would follow the exact storyline of the original series/movies then I’d be all for it. I was slightly a bit disappointed that the Japanese changed some of the storyline around and included elements of the second season of the Comet Empire into the Iscandar story. However, from what I have seen of the Japanese movie it looks awesome.
For now I just would like to see the Japanese film first and then worry about doing our version later. That’s if it is done right.
It was JetFire not StarScream that ripped the Macross design. But yeah…as an 80s kid that struck me as shady on Hasbro’s part.
Japan just released a big-budget, live action “Yamato” movie this past December. I haven’t seen it, but the trailers look good. Maybe one of the studios should pick up the distribution rights and redub in English. The movie has the look and feel of the old animated series, right down to the uniforms.
Didn’t the Wall Street Journal report that it was Deutsche Bank that withdrew it’s offer of $450M of funding in 2008? In fact, commercial banks have at the least decreased slate funding since then.
This was the most awesome, entertaining and exciting series. My childhood revolved around the adventures of the Argo – it was so special and well dome. This is the greatest nerd news ever!! Derek Wildstar will be the role of a lifetime!
That ship is not from Space Battleship Yamato or Star Blazers. It is the Soyokaze from “The Irresponsible Captain Tylor.” Although it is, incorrectly, the first image that comes up on Google image search for “Star Blazers.”
I remember interviewing Ellison for Flyboys, and I came away impressed with him even then. His greatest asset is picking other smart producers and filmmakers to work with and learn from. Usually, let’s not kid ourselves, the kind of guy who has Ellison’s money and background would be completely surrounded by idiots that made him feel secure. Granted, he can’t seem to shake the desire to act, when it’s obvious it’s a lesser talent of his (not that he’s bad at it, just that it’s a comparative waste of his time to taking over the entertainment industry). Still, in another five years, he could really start to be goddamn interesting. I’m crossing my fingers he starts his own studio once he has enough of Paramount’s high profile releases under his belt. I could see that shaking some things up.
At least we are not getting the Disney version where they were going to make the ship a retrofitted USS Iowa.
I would have liked to have heard some contrasting news about the Japanese live action movie. The trailers look good.
David Ellison — LET’S MAKE A ROBOTECH FILM! That could be a massive franchise!
Underling — I’m afraid Warner Bros has the rights to that series Sir.
David Ellison — Well, what else is there?
Underling — Star Blazers.
David Ellison — What’s that?
Underling — It’s a Japanese cartoon about a bunch of people who stick rockets on a World War 2 submarine so they can fly it into space to fight aliens.
Silence.
Underling — Should I option it Sir?
David Ellison (fights back tears) — Yes.
Not a submarine.
They do a bit more than “stick rockets” on it.
I suppose one could describe a certain poplar comic book character as “a billionaire who beats up mental patients,” but that would kind of miss the point, wouldn’t it?
If they are going to make a movie based on a Japanese Animation, they should get the approval of the Original Creators, or else, try to re-imagine them such as that they would not cause any copyright infringement. Sure you have names such as Derek Wildstar, or the Argo Ship. It’s not Japanese Trademarked so it’s ok to use them. As with the story, if the agreement is still there then I think it’s good to go.
There are others having problems with copyrights.
Robotech’s Harmony Gold is not in Good Terms with the Original Creators of Macross Big West/Studio Nue. They still have the rights to the original series for distribution (due to tatsunoko) they cannot make any derivatives or remakes. While HG Copyrighted the name “Macross” in so many Countries, they will get sued if they use it… Part of the Reason recent Robotech Releases where of the Third Series (Mospeada) which is owned by Tatsunoko. That’s why they killed off most of the main cast of Macross. Also the same reason they use the word Alien instead of Zentradi.
Another Franchise that had problems is Voltron due to some Legal and Marketing disputes with the Original Owners of the Animation (GoLion) which is Toei. I think that’s why the Voltron 2011 Animation was originally called the Panthera Force… not lions perhaps?
Take some time to visit starblazers.com and find out everything you need to know (and other things you don’t) about the SF anime classic. I’m the main writer over there, so this is not anonymous spam. Among other things, you can read multiple reports about the live-action Japanese movie, which was AWESOME.
Tim:
Great retort on that one.
The worst possible outcome is to get someone who has no clue about the devotion of the fan base.
Bryan Singer got it right in ‘X-Men’ and ‘X2.’
The right director can do the same w/ SBY.
Make it a cross between ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘BattleStar Galactica’ (2005 series) and you will have a winner.
As a die-hard Star Blazers / Yamato (SBY) fan, I am eager to see a competent version of this make it to the Silver Screen.
All they need to do is listen to the fan base.
Keep the story simple (not easy).
Keep the characters sympathetic, but in conflict.
Keep the enemy just about as nasty as Desslok was in the cartoon.
Include lots of action.
How about we crush the culture of Bigotry in America by forcing everyone to watch the Japanese Version of the Starblazers Live Action Movie before we even think about turning it into Cultural landfill spawned from the hellish pits of Hollywood?
If I see another all ‘white American’ Utopian scifi where the 1/6th Chinese, 1/6th Indian, 2/6th African, 1/12 USA population ratios are not met…I’m gonna be offended by the stupidity of it.
I always thought that if the action is taking place about one century from now, the ethnic composition of the crew would likely reflect substantial demographic changes.
Casting for the crew of the Yamato should ideally be open to actors dependent on their talent; I say open the doors wide!
How about not. Have you seen the original series? Most of the crew was NOT asian.
So no, to stay true to the original story I would like varied ethnicities. NOT and all Japanese cast.
Anyone remember the Disney attempt to do a live-action version of Star Blazers from about 15 years ago? The script is available from disreputable dealers at any large Science Fiction convention. It was unbelievably stupid. I see no reason to believe this would be any better because, as many have commented previously, the studios just don’t get the appeal or the meaning of anime, all they see is the crash-boom-bang, some name recognition, and the reassuring fact that they don’t even have to go to the trouble of chewing their own cud, story-wise.
Certainly a big risk, but then again, the studios might actually produce something that is worth watching.
I am hopeful that someone somewhere might show some sense when putting together a script.
Time will tell.