Harmony Gold suing Tatsunoko

[JB0]

I like Stealth, and think the Macross Plus comparisons are overblown. But at least mentioning it isn't completely verbotten anymore.

[M'Kyuun]

Stealth was pretty bad. I kinda liked the two jet designs, though. The refueling dirigible, and subsequent fire ring scene, were all sorts of Hollywood screenwriting/design at its worst.

Assuming that 2021 will finally bring liberation of the Macross property in the West, I personally don't feel the need for live action renditions of any Macross shows/movies/OVAs, although I'll agree that Plus would probably translate best, as it was inspired by the real world competition between the Lockheed YF-22 and the Northrop YF-23, and that the use of music was more grounded and believable than the majority of Macross. I just want good professionally dubbed DVDs of the various titles available, finally, at various retailers. Too, I'd probably go see Macross Plus: The Movie in the theatre if they released a good dubbed version of it (subs are alright, but I'd rather not read the entirety of a movie). 

As for live action, I'll echo the sentiments that anime just doesn't seem to translate well in Hollywood. GitS was ok, but I felt there were just too many things that felt off, and the use of 'Major' as her name rather than her rank bugs me to no end. I thought Alita was done really well, and in my mind, sets a benchmark for how anime should be adapted. I keep hoping that younger directors who are also longtime anime fans will start coming to the fore and deliver better adaptations. Aside from guys like Cameron, Rodriguez, and del Toro, I don't think many directors , and certainly not many old studio execs, really understand the appeal of anime, or how to tell a story the same way.

Anyway, I just want Harmony Gold to shutter their doors forever, and for whatever company gets the international rights for Macross to finally make the various series available here in the US so I can finally have them on good quality DVD.

[jenius]

An animated Macross movie could always be a thing... I can't imagine animated movies require as large a budget so it'd be less risk and would obviously do decently in Japan. 

Conspiracy theory: the next Macross series is Macross The First, it will be used to spread Macross outside of Japan and allow BW to then export Macross Frontier and Macross Delta fairly easily.

[Bolt]

26 minutes ago, jenius said:

Conspiracy theory: the next Macross series is Macross The First, it will be used to spread Macross outside of Japan and allow BW to then export Macross Frontier and Macross Delta fairly easily.

Interesting..

If they can ever finish Macross the First, that would help.. maybe open market in the west would help git er’done..

[Chronocidal]

41 minutes ago, jenius said:

An animated Macross movie could always be a thing... I can't imagine animated movies require as large a budget so it'd be less risk and would obviously do decently in Japan. 

Conspiracy theory: the next Macross series is Macross The First, it will be used to spread Macross outside of Japan and allow BW to then export Macross Frontier and Macross Delta fairly easily.

I would get behind that 1000% if it would get the series elevated to a mainstream release internationally.

[Sir Galahad®]

3 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

I don't see why they'd have to remove the Zentraedi references at all.  If you keep the intro of Isamu being the reckless hotshot against the rogue band in the beginning, there's your introduction to them.

But yeah... I hesitate to put any hope in there being a -good- adaptation of it, but it's probably the best candidate.

I think the word Zentradi was part of the IP, which was why Shadow Chronicles never used the term. I think Maia Sterling was considered Half-Alien rather as Half-Zentradi as far as I remember. (Please correct me if I am wrong here, or maybe my memories are just fuzzy or something)

Edited June 17, 2019 by Sir Galahad®
Added text

[Seto Kaiba]

7 hours ago, jenius said:

An animated Macross movie could always be a thing... I can't imagine animated movies require as large a budget so it'd be less risk and would obviously do decently in Japan. 

Animation is literal orders of magnitude cheaper than CG- and special effects-heavy live action production.

The problem with animation is that, in many western markets, animation is still seen as a medium that's almost exclusively for children's entertainment.  (Anime grappled with the same stigma in Japan in the 70's and early 80's and never entirely overcame it.)

 

7 hours ago, jenius said:

Conspiracy theory: the next Macross series is Macross The First, it will be used to spread Macross outside of Japan and allow BW to then export Macross Frontier and Macross Delta fairly easily.

That'd be nice, especially since we've had Gundam: the Origin released in the US in multiple formats already... hardback editions of the manga, the OVA series, and now the Gundam: the Origin: Advent of the Red Comet TV edit.

 

6 hours ago, Sir Galahad® said:

I think the word Zentradi was part of the IP, which was why Shadow Chronicles never used the term. I think Maia Sterling was considered Half-Alien rather as Half-Zentradi as far as I remember. (Please correct me if I am wrong here, or maybe my memories are just fuzzy or something)

You remember correctly.

Harmony Gold went to some pretty substantial lengths to get rid of anything overtly Macross or Macross-related when they were developing Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles for fear of litigation from Big West.  They used the tie-in prequel comic book to summarily dispose of almost all of the remaining Macross holdover characters.  "Rick" got an all-new design which resembled Hideo Kuze from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig and looked nothing like any previous incarnation of the character.  Both "Lisa" and Minmei were sidelined to eternally-offscreen positions.  Max and "Miriya" were Sir and Lady Not-Appearing-In-This-Comic, and all other Zentradi characters were summarily killed off panel.  The comic even redid panels from the Waltrip Robotech II: the Sentinels comic it was tying into to remove the VF-1 Valkyries and Spartas hover tanks and replace them with Legiosses or Ride Armors.  They even, yes, went so far as to forbid the dialog from using the word "Zentradi" in the OVA episode itself (and using Macross designs was already off the table so its sepia-tone flashback was all generic scenes.

[mikeszekely]

Why does a live-action Macross movie have to adapt any existing Macross story? Another easy jumping-in point would be in Unification Wars, and as a conflict between the UN and the Anti-UN they could largely skirt around the issue of aliens.

[Seto Kaiba]

20 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Why does a live-action Macross movie have to adapt any existing Macross story?

That's kinda what people expect when you adapt a property to a live action movie... that you start at the beginning.

 

20 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Another easy jumping-in point would be in Unification Wars, and as a conflict between the UN and the Anti-UN they could largely skirt around the issue of aliens.

Macross Zero was pretty to look at but wasn't received all that well.

The plot with the music and aliens is pretty much THE iconic Macross story.  You wouldn't make a Transformers movie and leave out the Autobots and Decepticons.

[Old_Nash]

On 6/15/2019 at 7:29 AM, JB0 said:

Haven't MOSPEADA fans suffered enough at HG's hands already? No one deserves Shadow Chronicles.

No one likes MOSPEADA XD

[Gerli]

2 minutes ago, Old_Nash said:

No one likes MOSPEADA XD

BS, those bikes are awesome

[Mazinger]

17 minutes ago, Old_Nash said:

No one likes MOSPEADA XD

And yet here we are, dying for Rook ride armors, Treads, and Captain America's Inbits.

I actually think there has been a global uptick in Mospeada interest, but that's just my gut.

And of course a small uptick on top of a small amount might not be that noticeable.

I do fantasize about an honest Mospeada live-action series from the likes of Netflix though.

Edited June 17, 2019 by Mazinger

[Seto Kaiba]

2 hours ago, Mazinger said:

I actually think there has been a global uptick in Mospeada interest, but that's just my gut.

Not sure about an uptick, it's always had a pretty steady cult following.

 

2 hours ago, Mazinger said:

I do fantasize about an honest Mospeada live-action series from the likes of Netflix though.

It'd probably be more live action-friendly than Macross since there are fewer fantastic aspects to the story like the Power of Music.

(That said, it'd probably take a lot of work to make the Inbit look like a threat that could actually conquer Earth since they went down easy to light anti-armor rockets in the anime.  I'd also expect them to dump the part of Yellow Belmont's story where he disguises himself as a woman.)

[Mommar]

11 hours ago, jenius said:

An animated Macross movie could always be a thing... I can't imagine animated movies require as large a budget so it'd be less risk and would obviously do decently in Japan. 

Conspiracy theory: the next Macross series is Macross The First, it will be used to spread Macross outside of Japan and allow BW to then export Macross Frontier and Macross Delta fairly easily.

I'll take it.

[Gerli]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

I'd also expect them to dump the part of Yellow Belmont's story where he disguises himself as a woman.)

 

Probably they just make him a real woman just to be sure.

[TehPW]

1 hour ago, Gerli said:

 

Probably they just make him a real woman just to be sure.

Why? The LBGTQ aspects of the story are far more acceptable now compared to 3 decades ago...

[jenius]

9 minutes ago, TehPW said:

Why? The LBGTQ aspects of the story are far more acceptable now compared to 3 decades ago...

Agreed, I'd expect them to ditch the heterosexual component before the cross dressing but they could easily play him close to the source.

[Old_Nash]

23 minutes ago, TehPW said:

Why? The LBGTQ aspects of the story are far more acceptable now compared to 3 decades ago...

Tell me about Shun in Netlix' Saint Seyia...

[Seto Kaiba]

41 minutes ago, TehPW said:

Why? The LBGTQ aspects of the story are far more acceptable now compared to 3 decades ago...

Some LGBTQ aspects are more accepted in the west now than compared to 3 decades ago.

In fact, that'd probably be why they'd dump Yellow's crossdressing.  Apart from his bio implying he was a bit of a Japanophile¹, Yellow Belmont's crossdressing was for purely pragmatic purposes of disguise as a Mars Base soldier and resistance fighter.  That could very easily turn into something the trans community would get up in arms about and cause some internet outrage.  Rey's reaction to learning Yellow's real identity was played for laughs in the anime, but play it for laughs or play it straight you can bet it'll garner cries of "transphobic!" if they were to do it in a live-action series or movie.  Then there's the inevitable backlash from the demographics who, for whatever reason, condemn that kind of thing and all of their fussing.

I'd expect studios to be rather gunshy about that kind of thing after the way the accusations of whitewashing hurt Ghost in the Shell (2017) both before and after release and the brouhaha over Star Trek's first gay couple on Star Trek: Discovery where the writers could do no right.

Then there's all the markets where LGBTQ stuff isn't as accepted as it is in the US... 

No, five'll get you twenty they'd play it safe, axe the crossdressing, and potentially make Yellow a woman.

 

 

1. [...] with an avowed interest in kabuki theater, where young men traditionally played the female roles.

[jenius]

In today's world, where it is accepted that women can be fighter pilots, making Yellow a woman makes a lot of sense... The pretense of concealing manhood to not be considered a soldier makes less sense today. Maybe having Yellow be a gay woman might be an interesting take but yeah, could go any number of ways. Ultimately though, it's quite possible Mospeada stays with HG and I'm not sure if that makes it more dead or less.

Edited June 18, 2019 by jenius

[azrael]

Yellow might be doable in live-action if you can find a feminine-looking guy. Making Yellow a woman for live-action would be the cheap way out. Oh wait, I'm giving HG ideas for free. I should stop that. 

[mikeszekely]

11 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

That's kinda what people expect when you adapt a property to a live action movie... that you start at the beginning.

 

Macross Zero was pretty to look at but wasn't received all that well.

The plot with the music and aliens is pretty much THE iconic Macross story.  You wouldn't make a Transformers movie and leave out the Autobots and Decepticons.

Yeah, but not necessarily the beginning.  Using your own example of Transformers, sure, they didn't leave out the Autobots and Decepticons.  But they also didn't crash on Earth in an Ark millions of years ago only to wake up in 1984 when a volcano explodes.  And, maybe I'm being pessimistic, but whatever Kawamori and company's intentions regarding what is and isn't iconic I can't see Hollywood selling the general public on the story of a pop singer winning the war against a militant race of alien giants through culture shock.  Best-case scenario is a movie that respects the source material enough for the hardcore fanbase but can still be sold to the general public.  I happen to think that acknowledging the alien star ship crash but telling a story (at least for the first part) about the Unifcation War could work (and no, I don't mean they should adapt Macross Zero, I mean a different theater and a more grounded conflict).

[Seto Kaiba]

51 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Yeah, but not necessarily the beginning.  Using your own example of Transformers, sure, they didn't leave out the Autobots and Decepticons.  But they also didn't crash on Earth in an Ark millions of years ago only to wake up in 1984 when a volcano explodes.

There's a bit of a difference between leaving out the core set pieces of an entire franchise and not adapting events from the first 8 minutes of the first episode of the first TV series that had at-most negligible plot relevance until they were revisited by a sequel TV series made over a decade later.

 

51 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

And, maybe I'm being pessimistic, but whatever Kawamori and company's intentions regarding what is and isn't iconic I can't see Hollywood selling the general public on the story of a pop singer winning the war against a militant race of alien giants through culture shock.

Kawamori did try to get the basic Macross original series plot adapted in that cancelled project Macross: Final Outpost: Earth... so he found at least one producer in Hollywood willing to take a whack at a largely faithful Macross film before they shelved it.

 

51 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Best-case scenario is a movie that respects the source material enough for the hardcore fanbase but can still be sold to the general public.  I happen to think that acknowledging the alien star ship crash but telling a story (at least for the first part) about the Unifcation War could work (and no, I don't mean they should adapt Macross Zero, I mean a different theater and a more grounded conflict).

Really, I don't think Macross is a setting or story suited to a western live action adaptation... and I'm not at all put out that there's no plans for such an adaptation.

If you take the music, the romance, and the optimism - the heart and soul of Macross - out of Macross, what you've got left when it's all done is flat and lifeless... we call that Robotech.  That's why Macross Zero and Macross Plus weren't as well received in Japan as other Macross titles.  They lacked that upbeat Macross love-conquers-all spirit.  If you want a more grounded conflict without most of the SF elements between a world government and an anti-government force, you're basically just remaking Mobile Suit Gundam: MS IGLOO.  

You don't keep long-term fans by sacrificing the story's spirit.  That's why the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies were a string of flops... they sacrificed the optimistic spirit of exporation in the original Star Trek for a darker, grittier, more conflict-heavy setting that got a lot of one-time casual views but failed to attract a following because it was ONLY mildly entertaining... there was no depth to it at all, no feeling, and no real sense of attachment to anything.  

[pengbuzz]

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

There's a bit of a difference between leaving out the core set pieces of an entire franchise and not adapting events from the first 8 minutes of the first episode of the first TV series that had at-most negligible plot relevance until they were revisited by a sequel TV series made over a decade later.

Kawamori did try to get the basic Macross original series plot adapted in that cancelled project Macross: Final Outpost: Earth... so he found at least one producer in Hollywood willing to take a whack at a largely faithful Macross film before they shelved it.

Agreed:  in order to make this without the cooperation of BW, HG would have to gut it like they did Shadow Chronicles. And as far as I'm concerned, that's certainly not Macross, and it's not even Robotech in my book. It's just....bad. It's just trying to cash in on an IP without using the IP; sort of like how the 4th season of Airwolf was made without actually having the helicopter to use in the series anymore (it was sold after season 3 and another company took over production). They just used recycled footage, and here, HG doesn't really even get to do that with RT.

They're down to trying to build RT from scratch, and as you mentioned before: "quality costs money". Something HG will not do, and certainly not for much as they can help it.

 

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Really, I don't think Macross is a setting or story suited to a western live action adaptation... and I'm not at all put out that there's no plans for such an adaptation.

You know, that idea has crossed my mind more than once in this convo. Some things just were not meant to be "adapted", and don't translate well to a western style of storytelling.

I think anime may only be suitable for anime, much like some things simply don't translate well into other venues, or even under different minds.

 

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

If you take the music, the romance, and the optimism - the heart and soul of Macross - out of Macross, what you've got left when it's all done is flat and lifeless... we call that Robotech.  That's why Macross Zero and Macross Plus weren't as well received in Japan as other Macross titles.  They lacked that upbeat Macross love-conquers-all spirit.  If you want a more grounded conflict without most of the SF elements between a world government and an anti-government force, you're basically just remaking Mobile Suit Gundam: MS IGLOO.  

You don't keep long-term fans by sacrificing the story's spirit.  That's why the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies were a string of flops... they sacrificed the optimistic spirit of exploration in the original Star Trek for a darker, grittier, more conflict-heavy setting that got a lot of one-time casual views but failed to attract a following because it was ONLY mildly entertaining... there was no depth to it at all, no feeling, and no real sense of attachment to anything.  

Star Trek never did well as being "gritty", as Gene Roddenberry's vision was  of a bright, hope-filled future. Depriving it of that made it fall far below Star Wars and just flounder, because the thing that brought it to "the game" was gone. Star Trek wasn't supposed to be about continual conflict (WoK worked by virtue that Khan was on a relentless quest for vengeance against Kirk, and was a one-off and not the norm, and even then the conflict was down to two battles and an incident on Regula), but about exploring issues and concepts of our time in a venue that allowed these things to be examined in ways that weren't possible in a normal setting. Questions about the nature and meaning of morality, the human spirit and potential, questions of existence, possibilities and concepts not normally expressible today...those were (and should be still by all rights) part and parcel of Star Trek.

All the JJ Abrams movies explored was how gritty they could make it before movie goers got bored...

Now getting back to Macross: it works because the music, the romance and the optimism are all interconnected and are fueled by one another. Songs inspired by love and optimism speak to both the forces fighting, the people in Macross City and the Zentraedi/ Meltrandi fleets. The optimism of both races living together peacefully inspires and moves them to reach out and care for others and to ultimately soar in music, relationships and even combat. it all drives one another IMO, and this is the soul of Macross...

... and HG couldn't do any of that if their lives depended on it, even WITH the IP.

So, deprived of all the things that made Macross work, all they're basically left with are the shallow impressions left by the weight of what was once there. And like Gobal and Lang looking at the space where the Fold Generators used to be aboard the Macross (after they dropped out of fold near Pluto), they're pretty much without a good idea of what to do other than to lamely head where where they KNEW they should be and hope there is something still left there (if they survive the trip!).

Edited June 18, 2019 by pengbuzz
additional thoughts

[JetJockey]

On 6/17/2019 at 1:10 AM, JB0 said:

I like Stealth, and think the Macross Plus comparisons are overblown. But at least mentioning it isn't completely verbotten anymore.

 

People couldn't speak about Stealth here because it was so bad?

 

On 6/17/2019 at 1:21 AM, M'Kyuun said:

Stealth was pretty bad. I kinda liked the two jet designs, though. The refueling dirigible, and subsequent fire ring scene, were all sorts of Hollywood screenwriting/design at its worst.

Assuming that 2021 will finally bring liberation of the Macross property in the West, I personally don't feel the need for live action renditions of any Macross shows/movies/OVAs, although I'll agree that Plus would probably translate best, as it was inspired by the real world competition between the Lockheed YF-22 and the Northrop YF-23, and that the use of music was more grounded and believable than the majority of Macross. I just want good professionally dubbed DVDs of the various titles available, finally, at various retailers. Too, I'd probably go see Macross Plus: The Movie in the theatre if they released a good dubbed version of it (subs are alright, but I'd rather not read the entirety of a movie). 

As for live action, I'll echo the sentiments that anime just doesn't seem to translate well in Hollywood. GitS was ok, but I felt there were just too many things that felt off, and the use of 'Major' as her name rather than her rank bugs me to no end. I thought Alita was done really well, and in my mind, sets a benchmark for how anime should be adapted. I keep hoping that younger directors who are also longtime anime fans will start coming to the fore and deliver better adaptations. Aside from guys like Cameron, Rodriguez, and del Toro, I don't think many directors , and certainly not many old studio execs, really understand the appeal of anime, or how to tell a story the same way.

Anyway, I just want Harmony Gold to shutter their doors forever, and for whatever company gets the international rights for Macross to finally make the various series available here in the US so I can finally have them on good quality DVD.

I think I still have a few Stealth images saved. I remember thinking that the movie should be good. I know I have a shot of the futuristic jet on an aircraft carrier. I'll check and see. But I was pretty surprised in how bad it was. That the movie after all those years couldn't come close to being as good as Top Gun.

[mikeszekely]

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

There's a bit of a difference between leaving out the core set pieces of an entire franchise and not adapting events from the first 8 minutes of the first episode of the first TV series that had at-most negligible plot relevance until they were revisited by a sequel TV series made over a decade later.

My larger point still stands- Transformers ran for six films and counting telling its own stories (if they can be called that) and not doing much more than cherry-picking names from the source material.  Whether I, as a Transformers fan, care to acknowledge those films as true Transformers or not is immaterial next to the fact that they made a bazillion dollars. 

You're basically arguing that a live-action Macross movie set during the Unification War that told an original story but could still fit into the actual Macross canon wouldn't actually be Macross.  Then what, Zero isn't Macross?  Or my idea for a Hollywood Macross isn't Macross because there's no singing?

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Really, I don't think Macross is a setting or story suited to a western live action adaptation...

We're really in agreement, here.  SDF Macross wouldn't make it in Hollywood.  We're just splitting hairs over what is and isn't Macross enough to both come out of Hollywood and satisfy hardcore Macross fans.

[JB0]

42 minutes ago, JetJockey said:

People couldn't speak about Stealth here because it was so bad?

For a brief period right around when it came out, there were about a dozen threads about "Hollywood ripped off Macross Plus" active at once, and it got KIND OF ridiculous.  And then the decree came down that enough was enough, everyone knew, and we should shut up about it and find something else to be angry about. (Very rough paraphrase)

[AN/ALQ128]

I'm afraid that any western adaptation of Macross would mess up the beautiful mecha designs.

Imagine the execs hiring some el cheapo hack off of artstation to make a generic looking "tacticool" destroid or VF, nightmare fuel.

[HardlyNever]

A little late to this news (about the HG press release/propaganda session).  My cynical understanding is that the real money for the Macross license for HG was actually in suing people and getting damages from those lawsuits (like their suits against Battletech).  Now that that revenue has seemingly dried up, I don't know how much HG is going to fight to retain their rights to Macross as we approach the 2021 deadline.  Sure, they'll slap their brand on some products that other companies are already making, but I don't know that it is really that profitable for them anymore, and it won't be very profitable for them in the future.  Most of their projects in the past decade or so were just to keep the Macross rights available to them, so they could sue people when the opportunity arose.

Still, it might be interesting to see a recorded version of this session (I'm not wasting my Friday on them).  We might be able to read between the lines of the propaganda.  Or it could be opaque BS.

And as a fan of Exosquad, please, keep HG far away...

[Seto Kaiba]

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

My larger point still stands- Transformers ran for six films and counting telling its own stories (if they can be called that) and not doing much more than cherry-picking names from the source material.

Granted, but the plot of the original Transformers series was pretty thin on the ground and largely episodic... so they could easily get away with porting over the iconic characters and a few set pieces in vaguely familiar guises, because the franchise had a large and devoted fandom.

 

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Whether I, as a Transformers fan, care to acknowledge those films as true Transformers or not is immaterial next to the fact that they made a bazillion dollars. 

That franchise was always merchandise-driven rather than story-driven.  Its fans were not expecting anything particularly deep or sophisticated from its story... they came for giant robots beating the tar out of each other, and that is precisely what the movies delivered.

 

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

You're basically arguing that a live-action Macross movie set during the Unification War that told an original story but could still fit into the actual Macross canon wouldn't actually be Macross.  Then what, Zero isn't Macross?  Or my idea for a Hollywood Macross isn't Macross because there's no singing?

Yes, that is pretty much exactly what I'm saying. 

If you remove the fundamental characteristics of a Macross story from a Macross project - the aliens/space war, the love story, the power of song/music as communication, and the fundamentally optimistic/idealistic outlook - then it's not really a Macross story anymore.  You can put the Macross title on it and try to fit it into Macross's timeline, but that will not make it a Macross story.  (Essentially, I'm distinguishing between "a story with the word Macross in the title" and "a story that's thematically consistent with Macross".)

If you look at the Macross franchise's history, you'll see the underperforming installments are all ones that tried to remove one or more of those characteristics of a Macross story.

 

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

We're really in agreement, here.  SDF Macross wouldn't make it in Hollywood.  We're just splitting hairs over what is and isn't Macross enough to both come out of Hollywood and satisfy hardcore Macross fans.

IMO, it's more like we're splitting hairs over what it'll take for a theoretical Macross movie to come out and make a lasting impact, build the fandom, etc. rather than coming out and being the Flavor of the Week that's immediately forgotten when a new sci-fi/action movie comes out.

 

 

7 hours ago, AN/ALQ128 said:

I'm afraid that any western adaptation of Macross would mess up the beautiful mecha designs.

Imagine the execs hiring some el cheapo hack off of artstation to make a generic looking "tacticool" destroid or VF, nightmare fuel.

*cough* MOSPEADA and Southern Cross what?

 

 

29 minutes ago, HardlyNever said:

A little late to this news (about the HG press release/propaganda session).  My cynical understanding is that the real money for the Macross license for HG was actually in suing people and getting damages from those lawsuits (like their suits against Battletech).

They don't seem to have actually gotten monetary damages on many of the occasions they've sued or threatened to sue... their stake in it is more a steady trickle of income from its merchandise and home video releases since all production costs were paid off ages ago.  HG reps, including the famously deceptive McKeever himself, were quite open about their bosses only really caring about the profits from the official website store.

 

29 minutes ago, HardlyNever said:

Now that that revenue has seemingly dried up, I don't know how much HG is going to fight to retain their rights to Macross as we approach the 2021 deadline.  Sure, they'll slap their brand on some products that other companies are already making, but I don't know that it is really that profitable for them anymore, and it won't be very profitable for them in the future.

For now, their plan seems to be selling or giving away licenses to indie toy makers and toy bootleggers to get something with their name on it out there... they've had a number of high profile crash-and-burns lately, so they're looking to put one in the wins column after Palladium Books and their own Kickstarter misadventure left them with more egg on their face than an industrial chicken farm could furnish in a year.

 

29 minutes ago, HardlyNever said:

Still, it might be interesting to see a recorded version of this session (I'm not wasting my Friday on them).  We might be able to read between the lines of the propaganda.  Or it could be opaque BS.

It's Banky... it'll be BS.

They wouldn't send Kevin the Coffee Boy if they were going to be imparting news of actual import.

[Bolt]

13 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

That's why the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies were a string of flops... they sacrificed the optimistic spirit of exporation in the original Star Trek for a darker, grittier, more conflict-heavy setting that got a lot of one-time casual views but failed to attract a following because it was ONLY mildly entertaining... there was no depth to it at all, no feeling, and no real sense of attachment to anything.  

Except for that part where new Spock yells “KAHN!!!!” Ha ha hoo hoo! I laughed out loud at that one.. he couldn’t pull off the Shatner

well, going against the grain,  Macross would have to be a trilogy. Yet stand alone in the first installment. It’s ok to be left hanging at the end of the first one and if it flops, it’s done..

you know why it probably won’t happen? Because no one in Hollywood with any lasting power picked it up. And , as mentioned above , for the obviously challenging reasons of adapting it. (And maybe because of HG) 

Cameron had Alita for decades before they finally got it together. How long was Ghost in the shell kicking around for? And Akira (boy I hope they don’t FUBAR that one..) long time talking about that one..Ya, Ya, I know RT has been passed around and smoked by many in Hollywood for years, including  Maguire and De Caprio supposedly, but as far as I can tell, it’s just an IP that’s been floating without any land in sight. May just sink now..

As much as a Macross movie would be interesting, Mospeda would probably be easier to do. But Mospeda is NOT Macross. 

Let’s just hand Macross to the Chinese and see what kind of sh*t storm they can do with it

 

 

Edited June 18, 2019 by Bolt

[jenius]

Look, you can absolutely have a good Macross film made in the West and arguing over whether or not that would be easy or hard is a waste of energy because it's debating incredibly unlikely hypotheticals. Is it much more likely a bad Macross film would be made? Yeah, the attempts we've seen so far suggest it'd probably suck. That said, you can have nearly ZERO aspects from Macross, have a movie that just carries the title for some reason, and if it has good action and a compelling story, well then you'll wonder why they bothered with a license but it won't matter so much. If it has a young man thrust into a mecha, it will probably still do well enough in Japan where Gundam is 100x > Macross. I love DYRL so I don't really see anyone topping that in any other medium.

Kevin McKeever's job is to obfuscate. He's the right hand that HG wants you to be looking at as Tommy Yune and his brother carry there boxes out of the building and pack them into their Gremlin to ride off into the sunset. 

[Seto Kaiba]

17 minutes ago, Bolt said:

you know why it probably won’t happen? Because no one in Hollywood with any lasting power picked it up. And , as mentioned above , for the obviously challenging reasons of adapting it. (And maybe because of HG) 

Cameron had Alita for decades before they finally got it together. How long was Ghost in the shell kicking around for? And Akira (boy I hope they don’t FUBAR that one..) long time talking about that one..Ya, Ya, I know RT has been passed around and smoked by many in Hollywood for years, including  Maguire and De Caprio supposedly, but as far as I can tell, it’s just an IP that’s been floating without any land in sight. May just sink now..

More than the lack of someone with lasting power in Hollywood, anime adaptations have repeatedly proven to not be profitable... that's a pretty big barrier to entry too.

Alita: Battle Angel took Cameron years and, as the best-performing anime adaptation thus far, it's not even clear if it actually turned a profit or not once the marketing expenses for it were factored in.  The Robotech license is just a case of studios buying up similar stories to a successful property, to deny them to rivals.  They've only been noticed thanks to Michael Bay's Transformers movies making bank for Paramount, due to the happy accident of being a contemporary of the G1 Transformers show.

 

17 minutes ago, Bolt said:

Let’s just hand Macross to the Chinese and see what kind of sh*t storm they can do with it

We tried that... it was called Astro Plan, and it was so hilariously bad that we successfully trolled Robotech fans into thinking HG had licensed it.

 

Just now, jenius said:

Kevin McKeever's job is to obfuscate. He's the right hand that HG wants you to be looking at as Tommy Yune and his brother carry there boxes out of the building and pack them into their Gremlin to ride off into the sunset.

Bingo.  Banky is Harmony Gold's version of Baghdad Bob... his job is to tell the Robotech faithful that everything is fine, that Robotech will triumph over the Macross infidels, and that they totally needn't worry about the crumbling sounds from behind the curtain that absolutely are not the franchise collapsing like a biscuit raft in a gale.

[Bolt]

I want really good live action mecha dammit.!

[F-ZeroOne]

16 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

 And, maybe I'm being pessimistic, but whatever Kawamori and company's intentions regarding what is and isn't iconic I can't see Hollywood selling the general public on the story of a pop singer winning the war against a militant race of alien giants through culture shock. 

Have you seen the ending of "Star Trek: Beyond"? There is at least a precedent there for an invading alien force being defeated by the POWER OF MUSIC [1]...

It also might be a concept that would go over better in Europe - after all, we have this thing called the Eurovision Song Contest, just hope the UN SPACY doesn't pick the British contestant as the lynchpin of their strategy...

[1] Granted, the setup and circumstances are rather different, but the first thing I thought when I saw the film was "Holy Crap, did 'Star Trek' just use the Minmei Defence?!!".