Can Americans Really Do a Better Space Battleship Yamato Film than the Japanese?

Before you rush to yell, "No," ask yourself: Why even argue? Of course the Americans can't do a live-action Space Battleship Yamato (aka Starblazers) film better than the Japanese, who recently released a well-received film (see trailers here).

And yet, there are plans for just that: a U.S.-made live-action Yamato film, reports Deadline's Mike Fleming. Skydance Productions, run by David Ellison (son of Oracle king Larry Ellison), is working on a deal for the U.S. Yamato version. Skydance already has a big hit under its belt, notes Fleming, in the form of the recent True Grit remake.

It's their money, so they can do what they want. It could, of course, turn out to be a good film. But I have tended to find American versions of foreign films to be homogenized, stripped of the unique touches that made the films worth my attention in the first place. (You're right in guessing that I'm not eagerly anticipating the Americanized versions of Stieg Larssson's The Girl Who Blah Blah Blahed books; the Swedes did a great job of that themselves on the big screen.)

But hey, I'm always game for more space opera.

The Latest Space Battleship Yamato Trailer

Star Blazers Now: Space Battleship Yamato Live-Action Film Coming

Step into the way-back machine and join me as my father takes me to the cinema in the late 1970s to see Space Cruiser Yamato, a Japanese anime -- and no one here even knew what anime meant in the 1970s -- featuring a World War II submarine (which appealed to my Greatest Generation father) that was retooled into a spaceship (which appealed to Science Fiction Geek Supreme me) that could go find a way to save planet earth.

The movie amazed me back then. I've since bought the films on DVD and watched them with considerable disappointment. I've had to admit that I was probably under 10 years old at the time I saw Yamato the first time, so my standards weren't exactly world-class. Still, it was so much better than the low-quality limited-animation cartoons we were being fed on TV here in the United States -- and it had a real story that lasted feature-length -- that it was a milestone animated film for me.

Therefore, I was pleased today to learn that there is a live-action film being made of the Yamato story, and it looks quite good. The film is slated for a December 2010 release in Japan, if I'm reading the news correctly. No idea yet when it'll be available in the United States (probably only in very limited release and/or on DVD). For one fan's perspective, Fanboy.com provides a short commentary on the film preview (video above).

If you read Japanese, maybe you can get more info (and tell me about it) from the official web site.