James Wan is a busy man. Fresh off catapulting Furious 7 into the box office stratosphere, the horror maestro has found himself on Warner Bros.’ radar to take the reigns of the Aquaman standalone movie, not to mention Universal’s growing interest to lock down the filmmaker for the recently-confirmed Furious 8. Now, Sony is looking to add another feather in the director’s cap by offering him the opportunity to helm Robotech, a big-screen adaptation of the 80s anime of the same name.
News comes via The Hollywood Reporter, who understands that Wan has risen to the top of the studio’s shortlist of candidates. Billed as a sci-fi epic that features mechanized robots, the outlet describes Robotech as so:
Robotech is a sprawling sci-fi epic that takes place at a time when Earth has developed giant robots from the technology on an alien spacecraft that crashed on a South Pacific island. 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.
It’s an intriguing concept that is very much a product of its time, and early indications hint that Sony is eyeing to transform the dormant anime into a bona fide franchise with Wan at the helm. However, given that the filmmaker is committed to horror sequel The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist – due to release in the fall – it’s likely the case that Wan will hold off before choosing his next step.
He won’t be short of options, either, considering that Warner Bros. is reportedly prepared to wait until the director’s schedule clears up before offering the Aquaman gig in earnest. Only time will tell which path Wan decides to take, considering that Robotech joins a growing number of potential avenues for the filmmaker to explore.
