Live Action Robotech Movie Franchise Announced

[Zetatrain]

Wasn't Robotech just three different animes tossed into a blender? Is Sony just going to keep the mecha or are they going to bring in all the other stuff from the anime like SDF Macross, Zentraedi, Protoculture, and, of course, The Minmay Defense?

Possibly, but from what I've heard Harmony Gold isn't allowed to use any Macross related property for new productions. So no Valkyrie fighters or Zentradi.

Why can't we have Macross and not Robotech?

Because Harmony Gold has two things

Lawyers and lots of money. Believe or not HG makes a hefty profit from the real estate industry in California.

Truth is Harmony Gold doesn't own the licensing rights to everything with the Macross name and if someone were to seriously take them to court over it HG would most likely lose.

However, court can be expensive and HG's strategy is basically to make it as costly as possible for anyone who wants to license Macross related material in the US. So unless something like Macross Zero or Macross Frontier is guaranteed to be a huge hit in the US, no one is going to challenge HG because the court and lawyer fees will make it unprofitable.

 

[infohippie]

Why can't we have Macross and not Robotech?

Someone in Japan sold Harmony Gold rights they weren't strictly speaking allowed to, and now Harmony Gold can basically veto anything Macross related being released in the west. Kind of why everything Macross related after Plus has not had a western release.

That's fine, fansubs are almost always better anyway.


I'm cautiously optimistic about this, it might be fun. I don't know where they go the idea that "The characters in Robotech wrestle with both the destructive and redemptive powers of technology", though. Seems more like "the characters in Robotech wrestle with stonking great alien giants who've invaded their planet" to me!

 

[VonBrewskie]

hmmmm. Not sure about this one. Feels like a "Well at least China will eat it up" kind of thing like Transformers.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

However, court can be expensive and HG's strategy is basically to make it as costly as possible for anyone who wants to license Macross related material in the US. So unless something like Macross Zero or Macross Frontier is guaranteed to be a huge hit in the US, no one is going to challenge HG because the court and lawyer fees will make it unprofitable.

The other problem is while Harmony Gold would be open to a licensing deal with another company like Funimation or Sentai Filmworks or whomever (they've said as much several times) the other company would have to make deals with Harmony Gold (for the North American rights to Macross) AND the actual owner of Macross in Japan AND the various companies that own the music in Japan and the US. Considering how little anime is worth in the west these days I sadly don't ever see that happening.

 

[RobertEHouse]

ROBOTECH or MACROSS a short history...

Robotech is the edited chewed up version of Macross which was released to the west in 81. Harmony gold owns that version and didn't approve for Sony to do a movie version. Harmony Gold was given only publisher right by Studio Nue whom made Macross in 80s. Ironically Harmony Gold was originally a publisher of Macross in the west but because they edited it so much they actually own the rights to there edited version Robotech. A court case happened between Harmony and Studio Nue in the 1998 the which was settled, its detail were never released. In the end Harmony Gold owns the edited Robotech and Studio Nue owns Macross which Robotech was created from.

Also consider this...

Sony got the approval from Studio Nue to make the movie so its suppose to be based on Macross the original. What is known for sure, is it will not fellow the original story because of Sony's plan to release it globally. Doing so forces the studio to put a lot restriction on what can be taken from the original show. So don't expect much of a story line or truly developed character's because it would require a lot of egg shell walking to avoid international censor laws.

 

[Rellik San]

As a British anime fan... let it be said that HG not only fucked Macross for the US, but also did for the rest of the world.

And as US courts have a nasty habbit of favouring the US companies in such proceedings, I doubt it'd go well for whomever challenged HG on this.