‘F9’ Writer Daniel Casey To Adapt ‘Battle Of The Planets’ For Russo Brothers
by Erik Amaya
File this under “The Chances That Robotech Movies Gets Made Just Went Up.”
Deadline reports F9 writer Daniel Casey will pen a script for the Russo Brothers-produced Battle of the Planets. The film will, of course, be based on the 1970s cartoon series which is itself adapted from the Japanese series Ninja Science Team Gatchaman. It centers on five teenagers thrust into a war against space invaders. They use their superior skills and technology to hold the evil forces at bay. Battle of the Planets kept the premise — although its opening narration said the teens defended the Earth against “alien galaxies from beyond space!” It also cut much of Gatchaman‘s violence and depictions of collateral damages in favor of a R2D2-like robot voiced by the late Alan Young.
Despite the changes, the series is fondly remember by at least one generation of TV watchers in the late 70s and early 80s.
The eventual film will kick-start a new Battle of the Planets multimedia venture, which we assume will be branded as Gatchaman in Japan as Tatsunoko — the company behind the original anime series — is involved in the project.
It is unclear how quickly the whole thing will come together, but we think its progress is only a good sign for the long-in-the-works Robotech movie, a project we used to say will never get made. Both come from a similar impulse to mine one generation’s memory of early anime imports and it is possible both films may, eventually, strike gold.
