'It' Remake's Director Andy Muschietti to Develop Live-Action Robotech Project

Entertainment news source The Hollywood Reporter revealed on Monday that director Andy Muschietti (Mama, It) "has been tapped" to develop and direct Sony's planned live-action Robotech film. Sonypreviously approached James Wan (Furious 7), who is currently directing the Aquaman film.

In addition, Andy Muschietti's creative partner and sister Barbara Muschietti will join "Hollywood Gang" producers Gianni Nunnari and Mark Canton (300, The Immortals) as a producer.

Robotech was Harmony Gold's edited and rewritten 1985 adaptation of three separate anime science-fiction series: The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada. The producers have yet to announce which, if any, of the three anime that the proposed live-action project will most follow, or how it will deal with the copyright dispute between Harmony Gold's partner Tatsunoko Production and the creators of Macross (the most popular of the three anime).

The Deadline website reported in February 2015 that Nunnari and Canton had hired Michael Gordon (300screenplay, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra story) to write the script. Variety reported that Sony Pictures Entertainment Group President Doug Belgrad, Columbia Pictures Production Chief Michael De Luca, and Sony Pictures Vice President of Creative Production Matthew Milam would oversee the project. At the time, the executive producers included Harmony Gold founder Frank Agrama, Gordon, and Jehan Agrama.

The proposed live-action film project was first announced in 2007 with actor Toby Maguire involved at Warner Brothers. In 2008, Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back) was attached to the project as scriptwriter, with Charles Roven (Afro Samurai, The Dark Knight and Akiva Goldsman joining as producers. In 2009, British TV writer Tom Rob Smith was slated to write the film's story. In the same year, Roven backed out of the project for undisclosed reasons and is now producing the DC Comics films such as Aquaman. (Kasdan is involved in the recent Star Wars film projects.) In 2013, Warner Bros. was in talks to hire director Nic Mathieu to helm Robotech.

The Robotech franchise has inspired several American projects such as the Robotech: The Shadow Chroniclessequel project (pictured above). ADV Films and A&E Networks Home Entertainment released the 1985 series on DVD in North America. Harmony Gold launched a Kickstarter campaign for a Robotech Academy pilot in July 2014, which was eventually cancelled.