The Casting Game - Robotech

With news that Empire Strikes Back screenwriter Lawrence Kasden has been pegged to pen the live action adaptation of the anime Robotech, I immediately begin on of my favorite pastimes of casting movies.

Now, these are just preliminary, I'm sure given some more thought I'd find better alternatives. I just found out about this news a few days ago. Also, I'm pretty sure this is a Toby McGuire vehicle and he'll be playing the part of Rick Hunter, but whatever. Here are my choices.

Rick Hunter - Emile Hirsch



Hot off the success (and yeah, I said success) of Speed Racer, Hirsch would be a natural. As with most stars appearing in this movie, age will be a factor, but at 23 he could get away with playing a 19 year old Hunter.

The only downside is the only role left after this would be Lance from Voltron.

Lynn Minmei - Charice Pempengco

Minmei's story in Robotech is one I'm sure most fans could do without. She's a flightly love interest of Rick's early on but is shown most of the time as a braty child. However, her music is what eventually changes the alien Zentradi into thinking that war is not everything.

Charice's voice is amazing, if you've never heard her sing, check it out. At 16, she may be a bit young for Hirsch, but that's not stopped Holywood before.

Lisa Hayes - Christa Miller

Yes, I'll change my mind on this later. I have a bad habit of casting people from different time periods rather than the present. Plus I just saw Miller in The Andromeda Strain and her acting wasn't great. She's a good comedic actress which might not fit the buttoned up Hayes very well.

Also, she's 20 years too old for the part. I was going off looks can you tell?


Roy Fokker - Neal McDonough

I would cast McDonough in anything. Whatever show he's in, he commands the scene. Boomtown was a sadly overlooked show and Medical Investigations was actually a decent show. He's got the smile and the charm but with just the edge of mystery Roy has in the show. As Rick's "big brother" Roy was always more than he let on and more than he'd allow Rick to see.



Commander Gloval - Rade Serbedzija

Rade is one of those actors you've seen in everything, or you think you've seen in everything. As far as I can find, he's only bee in a handful of movies and TV shows in the states, but it seems like he's been everywhere.

Playing Henry Gloval wouldn't be much of a stretch. Rade is a Croatian born actor constantly playing Russians. Gloval was originally and Italian in the Japanese series but became Russian in the American show. Natural fit.

Claudia Grant - Khandi Alexander

If for no other reason than to not have Halle Berry or Jada Pinkett Smith play another black woman character, I think Khandi was wonderful on News Radio and she was one of the better parts of CSI: Miami. This one might change again, Khandi is 50 and I'm sure Claudia is the same age as Lisa, around 24.




Max Sterling - Daniel Radcliffe

Max was always my favorite character. He was quiet and a little nerdy but mysterious and apparently pretty handsome. Plus he was the best fighter pilot in the fleet. I like him the same way I like Wedge Antilles; he's the unsung hero of the underdogs who quietly does his job with more skill than everyone else.

And honestly, I'd like to see Radcliffe not playing another kid with glasses. While Max may be emo, he's also very sure of himself, something Racliffe could probably pull off.

Myria (Sterling) - Kate Beckinsale

All I know is Myria is a hot, bad-ass fighter pilot. She marries Max because he's the better pilot and his doting after her eventually melts her heart and she sides with the Earth forces. It's a pivotal story moment and the offspring of the two becomes the protagonist for the next story.

I'm sure you could come up with several bad ass chicks, but after seeing Underworld, my money is on Beckinsale.

Breetai - Clive Owen

I don't know how Mr. Owen will appreciate being blue (or for that matter how any of these people will handle green hair) but Owen's got that dark, brooding look that commands respect. He played Arthur for frak's sake!




Ben Dixon - Seth Rogan

Every anime show has a team. It's usually in odd numbers and they're usually involved in some sort of robot forming or conjuring. Robotech didn't have any of that, but they did have the three buddies Rick, Max and Ben. Ben was the guy (same as Hunk in Voltron and probably countless other shows) that was the big loveable doofus. He likely had some skills but it was always overshadowed by his gruff nature, his imposing size and his affable grin. Sounds just like Rogan.



There are undoubtedly more characters needing to be involved. Kyle, the bridge girls, Dolza, Breetai's second in command and Khyron (who I think Matthew Fox would be perfect for, he nailed Racer X.) My brother also got involved and here's his list.

Rick-Tobey Macquire (duh he owns the property for that reason)

Roy - Mathew "Allright!Allright!Allright! Mcconaughey

Gloval- Come on man! Ian Mcshane

Lisa- Lili Sobeiski

Claudia-Parminder Nagra (ER, Bend it like Beckham)

Max- Topher grace

Ben- I actually agree with you Seth rogen or Jason Segal (How I met your MOther)

Minmei- Ziyi Zhang (Crouching Tiger/House of Flying Daggers
Breetai-Micheal Ironsides (he bearly needs makeup!)

Myria-Megan Fox (Transformers)

Exador- Hugo Weaving

Dolza (Robert Logia again..bearly needs make up)

I'll have to look some of those up. Some I can see being very good. Ian Mcshane for one. Not sure I'd put Topher Grace in anything. He's always going to be Eric Foreman to me.

But there you go, that's the game. I probably spent too much time on it, but it's always fun to speculate. What will likely happen is it'll be McGuire and about 2 or 3 other big names and the rest will be actors coming off lesser known TV shows or indie movies. They'll butcher the story so it'll only be Robotech because it'll have Veritechs and the SDF-1. They won't zap a whole island into space and the Zentradi probably won't be giant sized. I don't know. On paper it sounds like a good story to adapt, but it's so big that anything they do will have to be a large story. The Macross Saga alone would be worth a trilogy, not to mention the Southern Cross and Invid Masters stories.

I'm intrigued why McGuire has the rights to this. It makes me appreciate him as a geek now more than anything. Robotech was such a big influence on my childhood that I can't help but feeling a little worried about this, more so than the comic book movies or Star Wars prequels.

Carry on.