Update on the upcoming Epic Giant Robot Movie GAIKING
About a month ago is was revealed that a line of Japanese toy robots called The Shogun Warriors were going to be transformed in an epic live-action motion picture! The most popular of these robots was Gaiking and it looks like this will be the main focus of the film. He was the robot with the animal skull face on his chest. Rockets shot from his eyes and his chest while a shooting fist rounded out its arsenal.
When the film was announced a incredibly awesome concept teaser trailer was released that got us all very very excited for this movie. Visual effects artist Jules Urback who worked on David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. loved what he saw and showed some stuff to James Cameron and David Fincher and they decided they wanted to make Gaiking/Shogun Warriors a part of Fincher's new Heavy Metal film project. It was supposed to be a seven minute short film. As they started working on developing the short, it got into heavy development, their work got noticed and Urbach started acquiring the rights to multiple characters so that he could eventually make a feature film.
The film is being directed by Matthew Gratzner, and it looks like this thing is going to be epic. Gratzner is a visual effects designer who has worked on films such as Shutter Island, The Dark Knight, Iron Man, The Aviator, Superman Return, Alien Resurrection and several more. For those of you who missed the trailer the first time around check it out below and then we will go into the the most recent details that have emerged:
The robot in this video above is completely CGI, but the actual plan is to build life size versions of these robots! So you can imagine the actual film is going to look mind blowingly epic! I just think thats so damn cool! Watch the trailer again... can you imagine this thing as a full scale real life robot!
THR recently talked with Urbach and he gave then a little update on the film, alking about the differences between Gaiking and the other giant robot movies that have been made.
Gaiking and those kinds of robots, you’re talking about giant robots that are piloted by humans. You’re not talking about Transformers, where they are their own characters. These robots are the extension of the pilots; they are really like giant suits of armor. So it’s really the people inside them that are the characters. That is a huge differentiator. Gaiking is one pilot. It’s really the pilot expressing himself through this giant mecha.
He goes on to say that Gaiking will be the main focus of the film, that they will explore this one character for now. He likened it to how you would want to introduce Superman before you introduce the Justice League. The movie is currently in preproduction, but the robot has been designed, as well as a lot of the costumes and characters. They have a film treatment, but as of right now they are out looking for a writing to tackle the story and script. He say's that should all happen within the next three months.
They are looking at the actual film being released in 2012 or 2013.
I'm incredibly excited to see this film brought to life. If you think the teaser trailer above looks good then just wait to they actually start making the real deal.
What do you all think about this Gaiking movie project?