So I ended up not being able to make it to the Robotech panel, but the Harmony Gold team had a lot of news, which they posted on their website, to my rapture.
I'll start with the big'un: the live-action Robotech film being worked on by Warner Bros. has a definite writer. This actually isn't brand-new news; Mania scored it as an exclusive a week prior to Expo, but I missed it, so I'm guessing some of you did, too.
Smith's first novel, Child 44, won the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller of the Year, and also took the 2008 Man Booker Prize. His sophomore effort, The Secret Speech, came out in April 2009, and features the same hero, Leo Demidov. The works heavily feature post-WWII Russian politics, and it'll be interesting to see if that plays out at all in the movie, as well.
Harmony Gold's site also confirms Tobey Maguire as a producer, along with Akiva Goldsman and Jason Netter.
Other news of potential interest:
- Since several recent Robotech tabletop RPGs have done rather well, Palladium books is going to put out another called Robotech: Expeditionary Force – Marines, covering the New Generation and the Sentinels era.
- On the toy front, they're rereleasing the MPC Shadow Fighter, the Shadow Beta is also in the works, and a limited edition “Stealth” VF-1 will be offered at San Diego.
- Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles will hit France and Spain via TF1 and Divisia, respectively.
