Live action "Star Blazers" coming to the big screen... (1 Viewer)

[todd s]

From the Hollywood Reporter....

 

[Mark Murphy]

That was one of my favorite shows growing up. I'm not sure how a live action movie will play out but I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Carlo_M]

Holy childhood memories, Batman!

They better get the Wave Motion Gun animation right!

 

[Greg_C_T]

I cannot wait to see the Wave Motion Gun fire for the first time!

Also, I wonder how they'll update the theme song?

 

[David Brown Eyes]

Wow. I remember this being a favorite when growing up.

A live action version could be great.

 

[Andy_Bu]

The Quest for Iscandar would make a great live action movie with todays technology IMO.

For casting, they could probably get away with relative unknowns for Wildstar, Venture and Nova, but they would have to get two seasoned actors for Avatar and Deslock.

Bernard Hill would make a great Avatar IMO. Deslock could be played by numerous actors.

And the beauty of this is if it is a hit, they already have a built in sequal called The Comet Empire...

Andy

 

[Jerome Grate]

I remember Gigantor as the earliest Anime, my guess this was before Gigantor?

 

[Andy_Bu]

StarBlazers was shown on US TV in the late 70's, but was aired in Japan in the mid 70's.

I know Gigantor was made before Star Blazers but I am not aware of when it was televised in the US.

Andy

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I'm sure this will end well.

 

[Andy_Bu]

According to Wikipedia, Disney considered making this a live action movie in the 90's
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During the mid 1990s, the Walt Disney Company had purchased the theatrical rights to a live-action Yamato movie. The most highly publicized script reportedly put a ragtag crew of misfits (none of whom are named after any of the original show's crew from either the Japanese or English version) aboard the rebuilt United States battleship Arizona (which was sunk by the Japanese during the attack on Pearl Harbor) on a mission to save Earth. The project is believed to have been shelved.




From Season 1 (gives you chills just remembering it...)

We're off to outer space
We're leaving Mother Earth
To save the human race
Our Star Blazers

Searching for a distant star
Heading off to Iscandar
Leaving all we love behind
Who knows what danger we'll find?

We must be strong and brave
Our home we've got to save
If we don't in just one year
Mother Earth will disappear

Fighting with the Gamilons
We won't stop until we've won
Then we'll return and when we arrive
The Earth will survive
With our Star Blazers

 

[Shawn Shultzaberger]

Oh baby! I will be there opening night. I haven't seen that cartoon since...well...the late 70's. My wife is going to think I'm nuts for wanting to go see this.

 

[Andy_Bu]

I thought the same but the wifey watched both season 1 and season 2 on DVD and she loved it. She loves arc shows as much as I do so I was hoping she would be able to see past the older animation and enjoy the story and she did.

She suggested Jeremey Irons for Deslock...

Andy

 

[Jim_C]

Man, the memories this thread brings up. I'll be there opening night.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

A feud between Nishizaki and Matsumoto has derailed a lot of other Yamato related projects. I wonder if this movie will share the same fate...

For those that haven't seen the original Japanese version of the show, here is a link to a page that describes the changes that were made.

 

[CoreyII]

I still consider Star Blazers along with Battle of the Planets as two of the greatest Japanese animations to hit the U.S. I remember watching Starblazers in the late 70's and early 80's. The show along with Battle of the Planets became popular due to the path left by Star Wars.

What is interesting is, it wasn't until I was much older that I realized just how mature Starblazers was compared to many of the American cartoons. This is not a putdown on U.S. cartoons (because I love just about everything from Filmation Studios), just an observation.

I typically encounter more Robotech (Macross) fans than I do Starblazers (Spaceship Yamato) and when I mention the later many of them are clueless. Because there is almost a decade between both shows, I going to take a guess and say that Robotech was probably aired in more locations than Starblazers, afterall I remember Robotech in the later part of the 80's.

Im from the east coast so I remember Starblazers being shown on the local syndicated channels. Im far more familiar with Derek Wildstar (his brother Alex), Mark Venture, Nova, Deslok, Sandor, Col. Knox (the space marine), and so forth as opposed to Rick Hunter, Minme, and the Zentradi.

Just like Star Wars paved the way for Starblazers in America, I believe Starblazers paved the way for Robotech.

If any of you are feeling real nostalgic there is a webpage called toon tracker where many of the old school cartoon themes we grew up with are listed. All you have to do is click on the title and you can hear the music. And yes both themes to Starblazers is on the web page.

The web page is www.toontracker.com

 

[Jerome Grate]

That toontracker is a pretty cool site. Wish some of these were on DVD especially The Mighty....Hercules. Boy that brings back memories.

 

[CoreyII]

Hey Jerome, if you can get to the San Diego Comic-Con International, you can find just about anything on DVD or VHS. Believe me, you shouldn't have no problem at all finding Star Blazers. I remember the Mighty Hercules with the theme song by Johnny Mathas. Hercules would raise his ring in the air and scream "Olympus or Olympia".

Anyway there is a good chance that there could be a vendor at the San Diego Comic-Con that would have Hercules recorded on either DVD or VHS.
I just recently purchased the entire run of the old Star Trek cartoon series by Filmation Studios at a local Los Angels Comic Book Convention. The L.A. Sci-FI/Comic Book Convention is a joke compared to the San Diego Comic-Con International.

 

[Jerome Grate]

Do they have a website?

 

[JonZ]

Both SB and BOTP had a big impact on me as a kid. I remember watching BOTP in 79 before heading off to school. A channel from phili, WTAF I think, played Star Blazers for years.

All 3 Star Blazers series have been available on DVD for years.

I have Iscandar and Comet Empire, as I found Bolar Wars to be pretty bad. Theyre not the greatest quality but what can you do.

I love DVD. I had paid a ridiculous amount of money to get Yamato material on VHS from a place called Books Nippon in cali in the early 80s, becuase it was the only way it was available, until this stuff started showing up at comic conventions.

As far as Battle of the Planets/Gatchaman, there are are official region1 collections box sets available. Theyre excellent, with Alex Ross artwork. Uncut in japanese,theyre up to set 6 which I believe covers up to ep 72.
The english dubs onthese sets are new translations, I havent and wont listen to them Just go to amazon and search "gatchaman" to check them out.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Very cool, this used to be one of my favorite cartoons growing up.

Maybe this will start a trend if it does well. can you imagine a live action version of Voltron or Transor Z?