Skydance, the production outfit currently beavering away on a new TERMINATOR trilogy, have added another exciting property to their slate in the form of STAR BLAZERS, a live-action adaptation of the ‘70s animated series. Like the better known BATTLE OF THE PLANETS, the show was also a Western adaptation of a popular Japanese anime, in this case SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO I, II and III. For those unfamiliar, Series I charted the adventures of a starship crew journeying 148,000 light years across space to pick up a cure for Earth’s irradiated atmosphere (the result of an alien attack), that will destroy us completely within one year.

Christopher McQuarrie had initially been tapped to pen a draft of the screenplay a few years prior, but it looks like Skydance are now primed and ready to go full steam ahead with the project, re-recruiting the USUAL SUSPECTS creator to don the captain’s hat as writer/director. (How McQuarrie plans to juggle this ‘and’ the recently announced MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 5 is anybody’s guess.)

Let’s all hope BLAZERS proves a big success, maybe then we’ll get that big-budget BATTLE OF THE PLANETS adap we’ve always wanted!

More as it breaks. In the meantime, you can check out episode 1 below:

Source: Deadline

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