Written By: Ken HulseySource: 411 Mania
It would figure with a big robot movie like "Robotech" in development, somebody would tap the "MechWarrior" video game franchise for another film idea.
Former Disney boss Michael Eisner's production house, The Tornate Company, has just purchased the rights to "MechWarrior" and are planning to develop it into a big screen CGI cluster f**k. (I'm sure).
But, hold on. There are plenty of legal issues that need to worked out before this one go get rolling. Smith and Tinker and Piranha studios were planning to reboot the "MechWarrior" video game franchise, then Harmony Gold sent them cease-and-desist letters because the bots in their promo trailer looked like those featured in the animated series "Robotech".
Harmony Gold may have a legit claim here. If you know your big 80s and 90s robot history, like me, then you know that there is way more than meets the eye involved here. Try to follow along.
As most of you know, "Robotech" was an Americanised composite of three Japanese animated series, "Macross", "The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross" and "Genesis Climber MOSPEADA".
Many of the giant robots from the series "Robotech", and also from the 1981 Japanese animated series, "Fang of the Sun Dougram", were used in the FASA board game, "Battletech."
One of the games that sprang from "Battletech" was the role-playing game, "MechWarrior."
That role-playing game was combined with the bots from the later "Battletech" expansions to form the basis for the "MechWarrior" video game developed by Dynamix for Activision.
The list could go on and on. Let's just say that there are a whole slew of lawsuits waiting in the wings before this movie could go forward.
It's interesting to note that several years ago, "Godzilla" producer Dean Devlin, was trying to develop a "MechWarrior" movie, but he eventually abandoned it. Maybe he saw the potential for legal friction and opted not to mess with the whole thing?
Thank goodness for that, I can only imagine what kind of a mess Devlin could have made out of it.
I just want to point out that I spent many an hour playing "Battletech" with my High School friends. There was this one time that one of my friends, Sam, had just created a brand-new "mech" and it was making it's debut in combat. As a matter of luck, I shot at it from way across the playing field with long-range missiles and got a critical hit on it. His pride and joy fell face first into a lake, destroyed. To this very day, and grant it, this was some twenty years ago now, he still remembers the incident, and still doesn't forgive me for it.See Also: Robotech Movie News Just Keeps Getting Worse And Worse / Robotech - Movie May Not Follow Original Story / Tony Oliver To Host Voice Acting Class For Bang Zoom / Tobey Maguire Reportedly Signing On For Spider-Man 4 And 5 / The Robotech Prayer / The Power Of The Force Will Be Used To Write The Robotech Movie Script / Fox Gives Green Light To A Live-Action Cowboy Bebop Movie / Kikô sôseiki Mospeada (1983-84)(TV) / The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?
Now, if Studio Nue just would have fought to have Harmony Gold leave the whole thing alone, we wouldn't be having any problems, would we.
ReplyDeleteFor reference, Studio Nue is the originating studio for Robotech and, if I remember correctly, Dougram, and they had granted international rights to FASA to use their mecha designs for BattleTech. However, simultaneously, they had done a deal with HG and Tatsunoko for the cartoon version to be "remixed" for U.S. consumption, but it was iron-clad enough that HG could claim original work. Studio Nue likely didn't have the resources to go after HG and Tatsunoko in American courts, so they won the case.
Regardless of the right/stand HG and Tats had, they should have left it alone. I, and a LOT of folks like me, used to love both Robotech and BattleTech, and we've all taken sides since, but the majority fell to BattleTech in that choice. Too bad for dumbass Tats and HG.