It’s been a while since we’ve had a really big blockbuster movie announced but he’s one that should keep us going for a while. It’s been reported that Warner Brothers are moving ahead with a movie adaptation of the anime classic series Robotech with Spider-Man himself, Tobey Maquire on board as producer and eyeing the project as a potential starring vehicle.

Warner Brothers are hoping to make this their answer to the Transformers and want this to be a tentpole franchise for many years to come. This growing trend of past anime shows and the like mean that just like Speed Racer, I’m very ignorant when it comes to this franchise so I best just let The Hollywood Reporter do all the work…

“Robotech” was a cartoon series during the 1980s from Harmony Gold USA and Tatsunoko Prods. It was re-edited and re-dialogued to combine three Japanese anime series to give the producers enough episodes to air as a daily syndicated series.

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.

Just like I said after Regency moved forward with a Voltron movie we shouldn’t be at all surprised by this move today. Transformers made over $300 million worldwide which was a hefty sum for a movie that had no stars and robots playing the main roles. Warner Brothers see a market in this movie and they believe it’s not just the name Transformers which makes the movie sell but it’s the giant robots and their battles which entice the wider audience.

If they can keep Michael Bay far enough away from this movie then it should have a great chance. I would love to see a really talented and hungry director take the reigns here and really challenge Paramount’s sequel to the Transfomers and not be afraid to go to head to head with them. Competition can be good for things like that, and it’s proving to be for Marvel and DC in their respective comic book franchises. One forces the other to keep topping themselves in quality and scope.

And the bottom line is, there’s always room for big robot movies!