The Live Action ‘Gundam’ Feature Is Actually Filming
by Erik Amaya
While we might be a little late to the party on this one, it is still a stunning development: the long-in-development live action adaption of Mobile Suit Gundam is in production as of last week.
Written and directed by Sweet Tooth‘s Jim Mickle, the film stars Sydney Sweeney and Noah Centineo. Per Legendary Entertainment’s description, it will be an original story pitting “rival mech pilots fighting on opposing sides of a decades-long war between Earth and its former space colonies.” Additionally, “as shifting allegiances and a growing threat set them on a collision course for one another, they’re pulled into a high-stakes race across the stars that could decide the fate of humanity.”
So expect Amuro Ray and Char Aznable to be part of the movie’s past if they are mentioned at all.
As a part of a partnership between Legendary, Netflix and Bandai Namco Filmworks, the project has been in the works for some time. At one point, Kong: Skull Island director was set to direct and we were excited. Then things went silent until Sweeney emerged as the star and Mickle was named the new writer and director. As viewers of Sweet Tooth know, he’s pretty good at adapting long-running material like Gundam, but it will be interesting to see how he expands on what came before in the Universal Century as opposed to adapting the original animated series. We imagine, though, he will be able to maintain the sense of ennui that often permeates Gundam stories.
The cast also includes Jackson White, Shioli Kutsuna, Nonso Anozie, Michael Mando, Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton, Oleksandr Rudynskyi, Ida Brooke, Gemma Chua-Tran, and Jason Isaacs. Say, Isaacs could make a great Char or Bright Noa — although we imagine the film will be set long after both have passed away.
Long time Comicon.com readers know we always use projects like this one to measure whether or not the also long-in-development Robotech movie might actually get made. Between this and the upcoming Masters of the Universe film, it seems more likely than ever that Robotech will become a film. Of course, financial success of both of these projects would be required for us to say Robotech is “definitely likely.” In the meantime, at least the West is trying to see if Gundam can reach a mass audience.
Production on Gundam is currently underway in Australia.
