According to Deadline Brothers Ellison's Skydance Productions was negotiating to buy the rights to the 1970s Japanese animation series Star Blazers, and would hire scribe Christopher McQuarrie to write the script for a big budget live-action film adaptation.
Also, Ellison and Josh C. Kline will produce the manga together with McQuarrie. The series, an American dub of the Japanese anime “Space Battleship Yamato,” follows a spaceship, built from the remains of a WW2 battleship that flees Earth after a war with a race known as the Gamilons, and a last rush journey through space to save the planet.
The production rights aren't bought yet,–Ain't It Cool reports that Lucasfilm is also in the race. But it seems like Skydance are the probable winners, mostly with an Oscar-nominated writer involved, one who's gained tentpole experience recently, writing The Wolverine for Darren Aronofsky. Let's remind that earlier The Usual Suspects earned McQuarrie an Oscar for Best Screenplay.
Ellison's business model is on the track of Legendary Pictures, who've put up a half of the budget for Warner Bros tentpoles like The Dark Knight and Clash of the Titans in latest years, and than got the same kind of exclusive deal with Paramount to co-finance 4-6 movies a year; so it's quite possible that should “Star Blazers” step forward, it'll land at that studio.
If you don't know enough about Ellison's, they are David Ellison, 28, and Megan Ellison, 25, the kids of Larry Ellison, the founder of the database giant, Oracle, and the No.6 on Forbes top 10 list for 2010, and have obviously been stringed to every other announced project in 2011 so far. Their first major venture into film production was extremely successful; partnering to back the modestly-budgeted Coen Brothers western “True Grit,” they've seen a massive increase in investments, obviously richly rewarded, giving the film a worldwide total of nearly $200 million so far, and having ten Oscar nominations.
If Ellison's Skydance clinch a deal, we're sure it won't be too long before a director and prospective actors follows. Do you agree with this?
Before it happens watch “Space Battleship Yamato” theatrical trailer below.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbupyeGlBPA[/youtube]
