‘Gundam’ Assembled at Netflix, Jordan Vogt-Roberts Directing
No more kaijus for Vogt-Roberts in the foreseeable future, but Gundam will do.
Rumblings of a live-action Gundam film have been a thing for a while now, but it was one of those projects that don’t really go anywhere. Well, that’s changing now, as Netflix has just enlisted Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts to helm this ambitious anime-to-flesh (or metal) adaptation. The news hit via Netflix’s official Twitter account specialized in their “nerdy” projects.
Vogt-Roberts is a great fit for this film; beyond his stunning and highly stylized work on The Kings of Summer and Skull Island, his live-action trailer for the video game Destiny 2 also looked quite good and probably contained more striking shots than many recent blockbusters. Furthermore, he’s a massive geek who pays great attention to small details.
Of course, everyone is wondering about his long-gestating Metal Gear Solid adaptation, which last December hired Oscar Isaac to play gaming icon Solid Snake. Following this news, that may or may not be his next project. Sony Pictures and Hideo Kojima (the game’s creator) have understandably been trying to crack a great script for years, and Skull Island and Jurassic World‘s Derek Connolly is the latest writer to take a stab at it.
Unsurprisingly, Vogt-Roberts took to Twitter to celebrate the announcement:
A tweet cannot begin to express how excited I am by this! https://t.co/Nl3vsdd8fl
— (((Jordan Vogt-Roberts))) (@VogtRoberts) April 12, 2021
Netflix declined to comment on the film’s budget when asked by IGN, but it should be one of the most expensive original productions from the streamer.
The Gundam franchise began in 1979 with Mobile Suit Gundam, a TV series that defined the mecha anime genre by featuring giant robots called mobile suits (including the original titular mecha) in a militaristic setting. The popularity of the series and its merchandise spawned a franchise which includes 50 TV series, films, and OVAs, plus manga, novels, and video games, along with a whole industry of plastic model kits that makes up 90 percent of the Japanese character plastic-model market. Wowzers!
Francisco J. Ruiz is that guy who has watched Jurassic Park a thousand times and loves Star Wars. His hunger for movies is only matched by his love for video games. He graduated in English Studies from the University of Malaga, in Spain. As he keeps writing about what he enjoys (and doesn’t) for websites all over, he’s continuing his studies.
