Warner Bros. has tapped Nick Mathieu to helm the big budget, big screen adaptation of the venerable Robotech anime/cartoon franchise.  Put together by the late Carl Macek from three different anime series, Robotech was instrumental in stimulating American interest in anime, and in particular in developing a taste here for mecha-heavy science fiction sagas that feature piloted transforming robots and planes.

 

Warner Bros. has been developing a big screen, live-action adaptation of Robotech since 2007.  A number of writers have had a hand in trying to fashion a Robotech screenplay including Lawrence Kasdan (see "Lawrence Kasdan Adapting 'Robotech'" and a couple of Smallville scribes, see "'Smallville' Writers Get Chance at 'Robotech'").

 

As The Hollywood Reporter points out, "many writers have had a crack at Robotech, but this is the first time Warner Bros. has named a director."  Mathieu has yet to helm a feature film, but he has done lots of commercial work involving special effects and is currently attached to a couple of science fiction projects.  Noted screenwriter Akiva Goldsman is among the movie’s producers, so it is possible that he has licked the project’s script problems.

 

The news of progress in the big screen adaptation of Robotech is certainly good news for Palladium Games, which just announced the fall 2013 release of the box set game, Robotech RPG Tactics: The Defense of Macross Island, which will come with dozens of Robotech mecha miniatures (see "'Robotech RPG Tactics: The Defense of Macross Island'").