Bryan Barber preppring GIGANTOR movie

Movie about 12 years agoby

Director Bryan Barber has taken control of his own destiny with next project in Gigantor. Deadline reports that the video director-turned film director of 2006's Idlewild has secured movie, merchandise and video game rights to the family-friendly film about the giant flying robot. The deal came together after courting the 86-year old voiceover artist who controlled the rights. With all the Transformers news this week and the very likely Real Steel sequel on the horizon this project sounds good to me. The story focuses on "a 12-year old boy who ends up with the controls to the giant weaponized world-saving robot."

Idelewild was not a financial hit at the box office, and as a result the offers Barber received were more art house instead of the blockbuster movies he wants to direct. Here is what he had to say about his choice to pursue Gigantor:

“Shortly after my film came out, the writer’s strike killed those projects and when it was over, the number of films being made in Hollywood dropped dramatically. Suddenly there wasn’t as much room for up and coming directors. Those jobs were drawing 15-year veterans. And every time I went for a job, I’d spend huge amounts of time and my own money making presentations for each job so studios could see my vision.”

Barber lost out on Wolverine after spending a lot of time and money on his pitch. He spent three weeks and $50,000 for a presentation that included motion capture, stunts, concept art, storyboards and sound design. Even though he did not get the gig, Fox was impressed enough to reimburse Barber. He hopes to move on from directing commercials, videos, and TV and thus sought out Gigantor.

Barber went on to say:

“When you hit a roadblock in this business, you can give up, but I learned a lot and made relationships through those attempts. I decided, if I was willing to invest my money to gamble on a project I didn’t own, why not spend that money on something I could control?”

Here is some more information about Barber's relationship with the property from Deadline:

He saw a video box for Gigantor and remembered watching the series after school when he was a kid in the Bay Area. Barber started by calling the video company and eventually tracked the rights to 86-year old Fred Ladd. A voiceover guy for cartoons, Ladd was given control of this orphaned Japanese language cartoon nobody wanted. Ladd recut the cartoons and supplied English language dialogue for American audiences. Barber got him to agree to lunch, and that began a long courtship.

Barber showed Ladd a detail storyboard and he was sold:

“Fred had been in talks with Fox back in 1996 to do an animated film, but they didn’t agree, the regime changed and I think it just got forgotten even though anyone old enough remembers the theme song,” Barber said. “I got lucky. There’s a film here that doesn’t take itself too seriously, with heart and visual effects, about a super weapon that falls into the hands of a kid who develops the confidence to use the robot to save the world.”

Barber is now assembling a 6-minute sizzle reel similar to the one Zack Snyder did for 300, Barber said–and he’ll soon be ready to go back to Fox and those other studios and try again. One thing going for Gigantor is the catchy theme song below: