I just heard that the live action version of Space Battleship Yamato recently came out in Japan. It's based on the 70's era Manga/Anime series of the same name. I think I blogged about this on the WordPress site, when I saw the teaser trailer earlier this year. This is one of my must-see movies of 2010, right next to TRON: Legacy!
No word if yet if there's going to be a release of the movie in America. Although I'm positive that will come to pass... eventually. Especially since they got Steven Tyler (of Aerosmith) preforming the films theme song, "Love Lives"
The story: In the distant future... Earth has come under attack by an alien race (Called The Gamalons in the US version.) In turn, the Earth Defense Force rebuild a decommissioned WWII Battleship and turn it into a star-cruiser in order to fight back. Just to sum it up... the plot runs much deeper.
As a kid, I used to watch the U.S. version of the anime, which was re-titled STAR BLAZERS.
As the program was serialized, it aired during the week. I was religious about getting home from school in time in order to watch it on Channel 2. I didn't want to miss one episode!
The series stays relevant to me because Star Blazers was also one of the few animated shows (That actually was broadcast.) that wasn't shy about depicting death and destruction. True, most Japanese cartoons contain violence, but not many changes were made to the US version of Yamato as I recall... and that was a good thing! :)
Here's the trailer for the new production. It's in Japanese, but it's visually stunning. (imo)
