French director Alexandre Aja, who blasted onto the international horror scene in 2003 with High Tension, may be busy with his latest film, Piranha 3d (in theaters this weekend), but that doesn’t mean he isn’t looking forward. According to Deadline, Aja has just secured the rights to the Buichi Terasawa/Black Sheep Studio manga, Cobra-The Space Pirate.
If you’ve never heard of Cobra or his space adventures, you’re not alone. While the space-opera epic manga and TV series was immensely popular in Japan and all over Europe, it never quite found an audience here in the U.S.
“I grew up dreaming about Cobra,” Aja told Deadline. “My day was, finish school, run home and switch on the TV and I was hardly the only one. Kids did it in France, Italy, Spain, all over Western Europe. For many people there is Star Wars and nothing else, but for me and my writing partner Gregory, there is Star Wars and Cobra. I am so surprised it never crossed the ocean and made the same impact in the U.S., because it is so big everywhere else. There are 60 books, a lot of TV animation and so many adventures, pirates and bad guys that it is perfect to be reinvented into a really cool space opera adventure franchise for a new generation.”
For the uninitiated, Cobra tells the story of Cobra, a rogue space pirate whose refusal to align with either the United Galaxies Federation or the Pirates Guild earns him a spot on more than one most wanted list. Cobra surgically alters his face and erases his memory to escape the bounty on his head. While in hiding, he meets a sexy bounty hunter named Jane Royal. The two team up to find Jane’s sisters, who have back tattoos that, together, form a map that leads to the greatest treasure the entire universe has ever known.
As if it doesn’t already sound epic enough, Aja, who apparently enjoyed his experience shooting Piranha 3D, hopes to give the same live action, full 3D treatment to Cobra.
“It should be in 3D, science fiction and 3D are a good mix,” Aja said. “I’ll start work on the script soon, but I have been carrying this inside me for 30 years and we are talking to the creature designers of films like Avatar and Star Trek, building a new world and doing it the right way.”
Cobra-The Space Pirate (not even the working title) is being written by Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur, the same team that co-wrote High Tension. Aja is producing the film with Levasseur, Marc Sessego and Alexandra Milchan.
Have you ever read or seen Cobra? Do you think Aja can handle big budget sci-fi?