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Deadline reports that Writer/Director Christopher McQuarrie, best known for frequent collaborations with Tom Cruise (Jack Reacher) and Bryan Singer (Jack the Giant Slayer) has reportedly signed on with Skydance Productions to write and direct a live action motion picture based on the 1970's anime known in the West as Star Blazers.
The show, a recut, redubbed version of the Japanese Space Battleship Yamato was notable for being one of the first animated programs in the US to have a long-form, episodic narrative. Both Star Blazers and Yamato were about a crew in a race against time to save the Earth from environmental devastation in the wake of an alien attack. Aboard a decommissioned battleship retrofitted with FTL (faster than light) capabilities, their goal is to act as couriers for technology that could save every living thing on Earth.
While the program aired in the US beginning in 1979, the original Japanese Space Opera actually debuted three years before Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica. Space Battleship Yamato has already been adapted to film once, with a well recieved 2010 Japanese version that actually outgrossed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in Japan.
With EndersGame, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Star Wars VII proving that Hollywood has a new jones for the stars, the time seems ripe for space opera to return. Star Blazers is just well known enough to have some name recognition, but obscure enough to allow for a new spin.
Christopher McQuarrie was originally brought on by Skydance to write the film, and directorial duties were added this morning. While he is well regarded as the writer of The Usual Suspects, he has yet to have a bona-fide directorial hit or make a name for himself without his partners Cruise and Singer. Both films under his belt (Jack Reacher and The Way of the Gun) are modern-day thrillers, so we wonder how he'll tackle outer-space melodrama.
Star Blazers is in early development, and no release date has been announced.
[via: Deadline]
