Hollywood adores plundering the past for ideas, and the latest in the bandwagon of cult kids TV shows to be dusted down and put into development for a movie version is Star Blazers. Originally called Space Battleship Yamato in its native Japan, the series was ported over the the State in the late 70s, redubbed and edited and became a bit of a hit.
It must have made a bit of an impression on have-a-go producer David Ellison, who’s the man behind the attempt to take Star Blazers live action. 28-year-old Ellison is the son of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison – who’s the sixth richest person in the world – and so has plenty of cash to indulge his loves, which mainly seem to consist of movies and flying. An accomplished pilot himself, his first foray into film was the box office dud Flyboys, but he and sister Megan have had far more success recently co-financing True Grit.
While Ellison does have the slight whiff of someone who’s just playing with daddy’s money (his original plan seems to have been to fund films that he could act in himself), he now seems to be using the vast amount of cash at his disposal to try and build a serious film empire, founding Skydance Film, which has become a key player and source of financing for Paramount. Wth Ellison’s love of all things winged and mechanical (he’s the one developing a Top Gun sequel), Star Blazers is a good fit.
According to Deadline, Christopher McQuarrie (Usual Suspects, Valkyrie) is on scripting duties for the adaptation. The original Star Blazers series was set on a heavily polluted future Earth, with the human race facing extinction. Humanity is then offered plans on how to build super-fast spaceships, and told that if they can battle their way to the planet Iscandar, they’ll be given the secret to saving Earth.