12 replies to this topic

[_Comrade_]

No battletech or mechwarrior movie but a robotech (even more obscured then MW!) has a director, James wan of the Fast and furious movies

http://nerdist.com/j...robotech-films/

[DaniBot]

Friggin Panther trying to shoot that walking fighter jet...



EDIT: ...with it's handgun!

Edited by DaniBot, 06 June 2015 - 02:16 AM.

[RedDragon]

DaniBot, on 06 June 2015 - 02:15 AM, said:

Friggin Panther trying to shoot that walking fighter jet...



EDIT: ...with it's handgun!

That's a Wasp, not a Panther
(judging after the head, although the body looks more like a Stinger ...)

Well, at least we will be able to see how some of our Mechs could look on the big screen. And if the movie is successful, who knows, maybe they also revive the idea of a Battletech movie ...

Edited by RedDragon, 06 June 2015 - 07:14 AM.

[MarineTech]

The foreground mech is a VF-1A Veritech. As shown, it would be considered a Battletech Stinger LAM.

The rear mech is a VF-1S Veriftech. A Battletech Wasp.

The Panther was designed for Battletech by FASA and never appeared in Robotech/Macross.

Edited by MarineTech, 06 June 2015 - 07:28 AM.

[t Khrist]

Marack Drock, on 06 June 2015 - 11:10 AM, said:

... and FASA Corp actually stole 22 mechs many of which were from Robotech (like Marauder) to use in their own game BattleDroids later named BattleTech.

Ahem.. the rights to those mechs were not stolen as you say, little bit slanderous towards FASA don't you think? They, and the Macross franchise were both 'victims' of poor licensing laws, and the creator of the mech's designs. The fellow who drew the designs sold them to both companies without either of them knowing so. In the hot mess that was the legal proceedings afterwards, FASA lost the rights to the unseen.

[RedDragon]

Marack Drock, on 06 June 2015 - 11:10 AM, said:

BattleTech was dead from 2006-2011 and the TT aspect is only making enough money to keep Catalyst interested in renewing the license.

In truth, BT experienced a reincarnation in 2007 when Catalyst got the license. In fact 2006/7 the newest iteration of the Master Rules were published that are still in use today. BT never really was "dead". It was only on some kind of hiatus while the rights rested with WizKids and they started their abomination called "Dark Age". But even in those years FanPro continued to release Classic BT material.
Nevertheless it is quite fascinating how much insight you have into the financial affairs of Catalyst Labs.

[Anjian]

Robotech is virtually unknown outside of the US. Robotech is made of three anime series, two of them from the Super Dimension Century trilogy, Macross and Southern Cross. The third member of that trilogy, Super Dimension Century Orguss, was most fortunately never fell into the Harmony Gold/Robotech banner (if you have time to watch this, Orguss is really good and deserves to be remade.) The third Robotech, Mospeada, had nothing to do with the Super Dimension Century series at all. The Super Dimension Century trilogy are all done by Studio Nue.

Macross as a franchise alone is much bigger than Robotech outside of the US. There has been a few sequel series made such as Macross Frontier (2009) but it can't be licensed or shown in the US because of Harmony Gold. In fact, as of December 2014, there has been casting calls for a new Macross project in Japan.

As a franchise, Macross is probably second only to Gundam. Other "legendary" mecha franchise of Japan includes Neon Genesis Evangelion and Patlabor.

Sony is probably interested in making a Macross movie, but sell this movie only as Robotech in the US and as Macross everywhere else.

Macross is the brainchild of iconic mech designer Shoji Kawamori, who also designed the first generation Transformers including Optimus Prime, various mecha in the Armored Core franchise and in many anime TV shows. Ironically he and his Studio Nue also designed the mechs for the failed Japanese version of Battletech.

IP for the Fang of the Sun Dougram belongs to Sunrise, as well as Crusher Joe (Studio Nue also did this). Sunrise also owns Gundam IP, and countless more. I heard that Rick did approach Sunrise and the makers of Dougram about making the "Unseen", perhaps to obtain a verbal approval (showing this respect is important in Japan). Rick seems to have gotten this, so long as the MWO mechs do not slavishly copy the Dougram mechs.

I find Crusher Joe to be rather intriguing. I mean its NOT even about mecha. The mechs in Crusher Joe are just exospace powered suits. Crusher Joe as a story has far more in common with Firefly and Guardians of the Galaxy than it does with Dougram or Macross.

[Anjian]

I find it intriguing that James Wan is a Malaysian Chinese. In his youth its not likely he would have seen Robotech, but Macross in its original incarnation, translated of course.

Also its not unusual for directors to quit projects, and this guy has a full schedule that includes Aquaman.

I find something about Macross and its sequels to be annoying in that one feature --- some idol has to be singing in the background to help inspire all your fighters to win over the alien enemy.

Macross Frontier


The pluses for doing a Macross/Robotech movie is that its purely over the top, which makes for some very powerful visuals, which sounds to me like Mr. Wan's forte.

On the other hand, it also sounds like its going to cost plenty with its ark ships, fighters flying all over, and cyberpunk like SFX. Not to mention the snake like missile trails that is a Macross trademark. Plus the whole thing about the idol singing and stuff like that, trying something to satisfy both Asian and Western, anime and non anime audiences, its going to be a creative nightmare.

[RedDragon]

Marack Drock, on 06 June 2015 - 04:46 PM, said:

I find it how interesting you can call a barely commercial release, of a game with a supposed large following, that barely got any attention until recently can still be considered successful especially when the name brand of BattleTech went unnoticed until 2010/11 with the 25th anniversary edition release. Also those rules were 2006, released with the introductory boxed set. The 25th Anniversary edition was actually released to garner more attention to the TT franchise again as it was also at that time in competition with MechWarrior Online for the attention of fans (which MWO had about 1-2 million accounts registered by the end of 2012).

The TT games have done much better as of recently due to the fact that MW:O has lost about 80% of its original playerbase.

Also BT was effectively dead. The 2006 BT Intro set was the first game released in the BattleTech name since Classic BattleTech 2002. By that time Dark Age had taken over the market by Wizkids until Topps acquired BT in 2003. FanPro also barely released anything. Actually Classic BattleTech was some of the only stuff they did. FanPro's people and workers eventually turned over to Catalyst later on in order to work on the franchise. BattleTech and MechWarrior was on life support from about 2006-2011. 2008-9 was the last novels, and there was not a new version of the board game until 2011. The only thing keeping the video game franchise alive was MW:LL and MekTek's MW4:Mercs. Fanpro's final work on BT was the Intro set and at that time it was a last ditch effort to keep the license longer until they lost it in 2007.

Also in 2010 and in 2012 Catalyst released statements on their financial reports. Not until 2011 was BattleTech back into a high demand for their company. It doesn't help several people of their company as well as a few free lancers played Shady Money with the company with a reported $850,000 dollars being stolen or missing.

There is also financial problems in discussion as well because of the halt of all the Novels that were promised to be restarted in 2010 but we are yet to see a single print novel since 2 novels before a Bonfire of Worlds (the last Dark Age novel which was promised to be published paper back but is yet to be). Much is speculation but they have released statements indicating that BattleTech only has just recently began growing from obscurity and death.


ahem...

What about the designs from Crusher Joe, and Dougram: aka, Thunderbolt, Goliath, Scorpion, Shadowhawk, Griffin, Locust, Locust IIC, Wolverine, Battlemaster? All those had already been released in TV series before and were still used as exact replicas in the original 2 versions of the games up even until the release of the 3050 technical readout. They stole, literally, those mechs. Those were already copyrighted and created mechs. They took them. I don't say things nicely. I say what is reality. FASA Corporation stole those designs. Those were copyrighted and there is no debate who owned them first.

Also Robotech Macross came out 2 years before BattleTech
http://en.wikipedia....ortress_Macross
Seriously FASA had 2 years notice not to use those designs. By the time they made BT, Robotech was a huge hit. The STOLE those designs. They got sold them, but they no longer had rights to them after two years of a franchise already using them (a franchise they'd know of very well by then).

FASA had NO rights left even if the artist sold them those drawings. That's like getting a Van Gogh and selling it while claiming you are the one who painted it. Yeah you own the physical painting, doesn't mean you made it or own the intellectual property. You can own a copy of LOTR but no own the rights to the intellectual property. After 2 years with a franchise that had already copyrighted the art, FASA had lost their chance. Either Jordon and Ross were idiots, or they had no intention of heeding copyright laws.

Really ... I have no idea where you are getting all that from, and if you quote any actual sources, I'd really like to see them.

How in heaven do you even come to the conclusion that MWO has anything to do with TT sales numbers? Maybe MWO drew a bit of attention to the franchise, but saying "The TT games have done much better as of recently due to the fact that MW:O has lost about 80% of its original playerbase." is not only obviously made up by you but also quite ridiculous.
As if there were any person who'd say "Bah, this video game is bad, I now feel the inexplicable urge to go and buy TT products!". Just the thought that a Video game and a TT could compete for customers is that far fetched that I'd really be interested to know how you come to this conclusion.

And regarding the Unseen: Go read up on license law. It does not matter if you personally think they stole anything. Fact is they licensed the images but the company who offered them apparently wasn't legally providing them, which FASA only learned while theey were already before the court. The topic has been talked to death over the years, no need to beat a dead horse and try to blame FASA again. We already settled this so many times before, just go and read it up.