Netflix announced it’s given the green light for a live-action Gundam movie. Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Kong: Skull Island) was selected to serve as director by Legendary Entertainment, which will produce the film. Sunrise, the storied Japan studio and owner of the Gundam franchise, will be involved in the project.
Netflix also confirmed that Brian K. Vaughan will write the script and act as executive producer. You might know Vaughan from his career as a comic book (Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, X-Men, Wolverine) and TV writer (Lost, Runaways, Under the Dome).
The fact that a live-action Gundam movie was being planned is not new. Legendary announced they were in early stages of talking with Sunrise about a potential film in 2018, but without providing any more details. Netflix’s announcement is proof that we’ll actually be getting a live-action Gundam film within the next year or two, but there were few other details.
At this point, we’ll have to wait on Netflix to announce the title, cast, and plot.
THE FIRST LIVE-ACTION GUNDAM MOVIE
A live-action Gundam film (hopefully, the first in a series) made with today’s CG technology is something mecha fans have wanted for a long time. However, as fans of the genre know, this isn’t the first live-action Gundam movie. G-Saviour was a Canadian-produced live-action Gundam film, which premiered in theaters in Japan in June 1999, and then broadcast in December 2000 on TV Asahi.
Eh, it wasn’t very good. It only had a $5 million budget and a Canadian cast that is largely unknown outside of Canada. The special effects are what you’d expect from a movie with a super low budget and late-1990s CG technology. And the mechas only have a fraction of screen time. You can watch the complete movie on YouTube, but you will likely be disappointed.
This isn’t the only Sunrise property making its way to Netflix as a live-action production. Filming recently wrapped on the Cowboy Bebop series featuring John Cho. The filming was delayed for six months due to Cho severely injuring his knee while filming an action sequence in 2019. Thankfully, Cho recovered, and filming continued. The live-action Cowboy Bebop series is scheduled to drop sometime later in 2021.
