- accentrikproductio
“MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM” COMES TO LIFE
ICONIC MECHA ANIME TO BE ADAPTED INTO LIVE-ACTION FILM
We all know that anime tends to get shafted when their properties are adapted into live-action, but with the success of Pacific Rim and the appearance of the original Gundam in Ready Player One, the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise may be safe.
Legendary Pictures has announced a team-up with anime production studio Sunrise to make a live-action film based on the iconic series. Along with the announcement of the film came a description of the anime franchise and what the film hopes to accomplish:
The original “Gundam” series is set in the Universal Century, an era in which humanity’s growing population has led people to emigrate to space colonies. Eventually, the people living in the colonies seek their autonomy and launch a war of independence against the people living on Earth. Through the tragedies and discord arising from this human conflict, not only the maturation of the main character, but also the intentions of enemies and the surrounding people are sensitively depicted.
The Gundam that appeared in Ready Player One was the first Gundam to ever appear in the franchise’s history and the Universal Century timeline is considered the main universe of the entire franchise. While other Gundam series have introduced other “timelines” with original backstories, the Universal Century is where the franchise started and has the most content to pull from with five featured main television series and 13 films and limited series.
On top of that, Legendary Pictures has a great track record with properties featuring giant scaled battles and characters, such as Pacific Rim, Godzilla and King Kong. The genre of Mobile Suit Gundam could also be considered easier to adapt into a live-action film than other anime; other than filming real actors to play the characters, all the scenes involving the mobile suits and warships are more or less the same as other sci-fi films.
As an otaku, I’m all in for a live-action Mobile Suit Gundam film and perhaps Legendary Pictures can raise the bar for future anime adaptations. Japan also has a giant Gundam figure they could draw inspiration from.