They're making a live action Robotech movie with Tobie Maguire set to be cast in the leading role.
TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - After slipping on a mask for Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire might be slipping into a giant robot for "Robotech."
After a lengthy negotiation, Warner Bros. Pictures has picked up feature rights to "Robotech," a 1980s Japanese cartoon series with giant robots known as mechas. Maguire is eyeing the lead role, and will serve as a producer.
We are very excited to bring 'Robotech' to the big screen," Maguire said. "There is a rich mythology that will be a great foundation for a sophisticated, smart and entertaining film."
A sprawling sci-fi epic, "Robotech" takes place at a time when Earth has developed giant robots from the technology on an alien spacecraft that crashed on a South Pacific isle. Mankind is forced to use the technology to fend off three successive waves of alien invasions. The first invasion concerns a battle with a race of giant warriors who seek to retrieve their flagship's energy source known as "protoculture," and the planet's survival ends up in the hands of two young pilots.
The $686 million worldwide box office success of "Transformers" has inspired other studios to assemble giant robot movies. Last month, Fox-based Regency picked up 1980s Japanese anime series "Voltron."
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
Macross fans must both be very excited and appalled. For those of you not in the know, the animated series that aired in the 1980's known as Robotech was actually the butchering of three different Japanese animation TV series by writer/producter Carl Macek. The three unrelated series were Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada.
While many credit Robotech with being responsible for igniting the anime movement in the West, many dedicated anime fans view it as a travesty.
Prior to the airing of the Robotech TV series, the model kit company Revell had a Robotech mecha model kit line. The designs of the mechs in that model kit line were direct copies of the mecha featured in Macross , Taiyo no Kiba Dougram ("Fang of the Sun: Dougram"), Super Dimension Century Orguss among others.
It was widely known that Macek believed all anime should be dubbed into English— which isn't necessarily a bad thing except for the fact that anime dubbing at that time was done quite badly, and that Macek had a policy of completely re-writing the original script, making sure to edit out what he calls "ethnic gestures" to make anime 'ethnic neutral.'
With the obvious theft of mecha designs coupled with Macek's philosophy and practices, Robotech has become a dirty word among anime fandom. If you feel like living dangerously, utter "Robotech" in an anime convention and be prepared for the reaction. 
I admit that I loved Robotech when I had seen it. Recorded it and watched it religiously to the point where I had memorized the dialogue from episodes. Like many anime fans, eventually I moved on to unedited anime and that had changed my views about Robotech. But love it or hate it, Robotech played a large role in helping the anime movement in the West.
As a Macross fan, I'm definitely looking forward to it but seeing as the anime fandom is so much larger and far more knowledgeable than it was back in the day, I hope the producers realize that it would be the right thing to do to give a nod to the original Macross series.
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