Live Action Gundam Film Offically Announced

[Lord of the Manatees]

I mean I never saw a really big issue with Pacific Rim: Uprising, overall it was a good movie. I found it rather easy to watch and found it an overall pretty good sequel to Pacific Rim. Now did it beat out the original Pacific Rim for me? No it didn't but sequels rarely do for me anyway. It still kept the overall feel of Pacific Rim in it. I'm just really curious to see what route they will be taking for this movie.

[windkami]

I mean I never saw a really big issue with Pacific Rim: Uprising, overall it was a good movie. I found it rather easy to watch and found it an overall pretty good sequel to Pacific Rim. Now did it beat out the original Pacific Rim for me? No it didn't but sequels rarely do for me anyway. It still kept the overall feel of Pacific Rim in it. I'm just really curious to see what route they will be taking for this movie.

I agree the first Pacific Rim is a great movie, nothing award winning but it is a lot of fun. Uprising was also a lot of fun, but it was really simplistic, if you were expecting the story, and world to expand than you were just asking to be disappointed.

I also agree based on the language that it may be it's own story built on the Gundam tropes, which is honestly the smartest thing you can do, that way people cannot compare it to a previously written work and say it is to similar/dissimilar. Plus with it's own characters/casting we will not have to hear complaints of "whitewashing" or misinterpretations.

[gundammonkey]

I pray to God Micheal Bay will not be involved. I'm also kinda hoping this will be a entirely new store. I'm a little concerned how the original MSG would translate into a 2 hour long film and how well western audiences will accept the characters names. Yes I do know that did a 3 part movie version of that anime, but I feel a fresh story would work best for a live action movie.

I would have to agree about the whole Micheal Bay thing.
Please dear God! No Bay. Please don't attach that hatchet job of a director to this, he has already destroyed enough of the good things from the 80's. TMNT, destroyed, Transformers, Destroyed whats next on his list of targets? G.I.Joe and Mask, so sad but RIP Duke. So unless all you want is scantily clad girls (not women they can't be old enough to be legal) with Porn level acting and over done explosions, then by all means give it over to Bay. If you want a coherent story, decent acting, and a somewhat realistic Gundam fight then stay away from Bay.

[Ronové]

So I was talking with someone who was watching AGE for the first time and they remarked on how different the artstyle is as well as the mech design compared to classic UC.

And that got me thinking, I wonder what kind of style they'll go for in the LA movie? Since looking between UC, 00, AGE and IBO there are some radically different looking mech designs. I sense that they'll probably stick to a UC-esque design at least for the main Gundam. G-Saviour at least looked cool.

I would be totally down if they somehow managed to get Syd Mead back to design the main Gundam. <3

[windkami]

So I was talking with someone who was watching AGE for the first time and they remarked on how different the artstyle is as well as the mech design compared to classic UC.

And that got me thinking, I wonder what kind of style they'll go for in the LA movie? Since looking between UC, 00, AGE and IBO there are some radically different looking mech designs. I sense that they'll probably stick to a UC-esque design at least for the main Gundam. G-Saviour at least looked cool.

I would be totally down if they somehow managed to get Syd Mead back to design the main Gundam. <3

Yeah with Bandai-Namco, and Sunrise involved directly I would expect we will get some "safe" designs for the first movie.

[Zeta-G]

They might make the mobile suit designs a little busier (perhaps in the style of the 1/1 Gundams and RGs), but I don't expect them to venture too far away from the "normal" Gundam & mobile suit designs you see in stuff like UC, SEED, and AGE's not-Vagan designs. At most we might get some relatively minor deviations from the "normal" design language like you see in stuff like Wing, X, 00, Reconguista, and IBO. Off the wall crazy deviations from the norm like you see in G and the Build series are probably not going to happen; ditto for super busy Bayformers style designs lacking distinct personalities. Sunrise is still going to be involved, so don't be shocked if they use someone like Katoki, Okawara, and/or Ebikawa, to at least come up with the initial 2d line art that the eventual 3D CGI models are based off of. Sunrise will want the designs to still evoke classic Gundam, so they can easily push fans of Legendary Gundam into checking out traditional Gundam anime, manga, and non Legendary Gundam Gunpla.

[windkami]

They might make the mobile suit designs a little busier (perhaps in the style of the 1/1 Gundams and RGs), but I don't expect them to venture too far away from the "normal" Gundam & mobile suit designs you see in stuff like UC, SEED, and AGE's not-Vagan designs. At most we might get some relatively minor deviations from the "normal" design language like you see in stuff like Wing, X, 00, Reconguista, and IBO. Off the wall crazy deviations from the norm like you see in G and the Build series are probably not going to happen; ditto for super busy Bayformers style designs lacking distinct personalities. Sunrise is still going to be involved, so don't be shocked if they use someone like Katoki, Okawara, and/or Ebikawa, to at least come up with the initial 2d line art that the eventual 3D CGI models are based off of. Sunrise will want the designs to still evoke classic Gundam, so they can easily push fans of Legendary Gundam into checking out traditional Gundam anime, manga, and non Legendary Gundam Gunpla.

Yeah I agree we will probably get suits with more noticeable details but otherwise pull from more traditionally iconic designs. There may be some off the wall MA or design but the core Gundam suit will be classical. I also think that all the Japanese companies involved will want to keep it that way because if they plan to sell Gunpla kits/Toys their best audience will still be the old fans not necessarily the new fans.

[Ronové]

I've also been thinking about what kind of rating they could be aiming for.

Don't most movies nowadays aim for a PG-13 rating to get the highest number of butts on seats?

[Zeta]

I've also been thinking about what kind of rating they could be aiming for.

Don't most movies nowadays aim for a PG-13 rating to get the highest number of butts on seats?

That's probably what they are going to be aiming for. I mean, Dunkirk was a serious war drama but it wasn't violent enough to warrant a hard R rating like say Saving Private Ryan or Fury.

[Zeta-G]

PG-13 for sure. The DVDs/BDs of the various anime (and even G-Saviour) pretty much always have had the equivalent self-assigned content rating. Legendary’s mecha/kaiju films have also all had PG-13 ratings. Gundam’s violence is rarely depicted in a super graphic enough way to warrant anything higher (although the occasional pilot getting cut in half like Nicol or certain bad guys like Ali might flirt with the line between PG-13 & R). Gundam has also never been an explicitly sexual series, so it should probably be safe there too (unless it has a naked newtype space scene, then all bets are off with the prudish MPAA; god forbid a boob be seen, even though plenty of violence is usually A-OK with them to get a PG-13 instead of R).

[GundamRemake]

The burning thing falling to Earth after leaving its orbit seen in the teaser is obviously a Space Colony;
The announcement on Legendary's official site describes in depth First Gundam's storyline, to the extent of citing Amuro's maturation;
RX-78-2 is an official mascot of Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020;
The Origin OVA was stopped before retelling First Gundam story, thus preventing it to become a remake more than a prequel story;
No doubt this announced live action movie will be set in a "New Cinematic Universal Century" and will retell First Gundam with the same characters in an updated story. No doubt it will be a two or three movies (filmed back-to-back) story arc to set a starting point for a new franchise.

[Ronové]

I could definitely see mook mobile suits resembling the Flags or the AirMaster in how they could be planes normally and then switch to a "robot mode". Could potentially save a bit on the budget that way, even if it does skew a little towards the more Macross style.

As for the main Gundam, I wonder what kind of gimmicks they might choose? The original RX-78-02 really didn't have much in the way of special features, but then that might be for the best for an initial film. Maybe give Psycommu (or some variant) to the villains for the hero to overcome and then in a potential sequel they can use it.

[gundammonkey]

god forbid a boob be seen, even though plenty of violence is usually A-OK

Just ask Facebook, Fear the NIPPLE!!! The sanctity of all society is in the balance of the fear of the sight of a female Nipple! Such horrors should not be thrust upon our innocent youth.

[Plamobot]

Yeah, this ain't a 1980s horror movie.

[Zeta-G]

Just ask Facebook, Fear the NIPPLE!!! The sanctity of all society is in the balance of the fear of the sight of a female Nipple! Such horrors should not be thrust upon our innocent youth.

I see what you did there.

@Plamobot: To be perfectly honest, if this live action Gundam film ends up being a bastardized take on Gundam, I’d much rather it be a bastardization with 80’s slasher tropes than Bayformers tropes. Imagine a movie about a brutal serial killer using a Mobile Suit to gratuitously terrorize, torture, and murder a bunch of innocent teenagers, before one terrorized teenage girl is finally able to dig down and find enough inner strength to rise up, fight back against the psycho, and put him down. Sounds a lot closer thematically to the forced maturization in the face of the harsh/tragic realities of war plot line commonly found at the heart of Gundam stories than the completely dumb, thoughtless violence and stupid, tasteless, and/or racist/sexist jokes of a typical Bayformers movie do. And if it properly follows the 80’s slasher formula we’d even finally get a female protagonist in Gundam out of the deal, so that’d be something.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d much rather have a not-bastardized “real” Gundam story authentically based on (the spirit of) UC/Gundam in general that follows all of the standard Gundam tropes than any kind of bastardization, but if Hollywood has to bastardize Gundam, there’s far worse ways to do it than following the standard 80’s slasher formula. Basically an Ali al-Sanchez type as a Mobile Suit using serial killer who eventually gets his comeuppance wouldn’t be the worst/most inauthentic/most bastardized possible Gundam movie in the world. Just saying.