It is certainly a rarity that a movie is put into production without hitting the film news radars. This one somehow managed to sneak through, at least until now. The official title of this Japanese live action Sci-Fi flick is Space Battleship Yamato. It is based off of an anime series from the 1970′s which was dubbed into English and released to the US under the title Star Blazers. In the series the year is 2199 and Earth is facing extinction due to radioactive pollution from the Gamilons. The Queen of planet Iscandar promises the Earthlings a solution if they can reach her planet which lies 148,000 light years away. They have just one year to do this and make a return to Earth before its too late. As one could probably guess, the Gamilons cause many obstacles on the journey. Sound interesting at all? Check out the brief footage below.
Director Takashi Yamazaki was given an estimated 2 Billion Yen (approximately $20 million USD) to create the film. Even though I have never seen the show, I do know quite a few friends that are fans so there definitely appears to be an audience. Other than a minor fan base though, why does this small foreign film matter at all? As a user on wikipedia states:
Star Blazers was the first popular English-translated anime that had an over-arching plot and storyline that required the episodes to be shown in order. It dealt with somewhat more mature themes than other productions aimed at the same target audience at the time. As a result, it paved the way for future arc-based, plot-driven anime translations.
Essentially, this series was the start of anime in America as we know it today.
Starring in the film is Takuya Kimura who played the lead role in Howl’s Moving Castle, an animated film by Miyazaki that was released in 2004. Space Battleship Yamato is currently slated for a December 2010 release and has not yet picked up a domestic distributor.
(via Collider)
Are you a fan or know someone who is into Star Blazers? Do you think this has potential to do well if released in the US?
