28 1/2(1994)
Part of a new initiative betweens several studios to bring back iconic characters from the 1960’s(as the 30 year cycle is in effect and 60’s nostalgia is big). Going through several properties
Sabu to Ichi Torimono Hikae was dropped as it featured a character based on beloved blind samurai and star of his own film series
Zatoichi, the actor of whom, Shintaro Katsu, having retired in 1989. There were talks of reviving “The Golden Bat” Japan’s first Superhero, predating Superman but rights issues were complex as he'd first appeared in a popular street theater format making, though he was saved for a possible later film. Others considered were
Princess Knight(passed over
The Mighty Atom),
Attack No 1(Clashed tonally being a sports franchise), and
Sally the Witch(Set to appear in the
Giant Robo Animated Films). The choice was narrowed down to
Dororo, Mach Go Go go(already in production once its rebooted series did well),
The Mighty Atom, and
Tetsujin 28-Go[1]
While
The Mighty Atom was set to be the first live action film made, being by far the most popular character and it would be a tribute to the late Osamu Tezuka,
Tetsujin 28-Go was fought for by the owners TMS Entertainment. This was allegedly because
Tetsujin 28-Go had planned their animated series for 1980 but a
Mighty Atom revival had been released earlier, leading many to believe that
Tetsujin 28-Go had intentionally chose to piggyback on the success of the
Mighty Atom when it was coincidence. They wanted to be first and Tezuka Productions agreed. Many would come to believe that was for the best. Stanley Kubrick had pitched to Steven Spielberg an adaptation of the short story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long” which focuses on an Android child bought by parents that is discarded when their true child is born. Kubrick felt he wasn’t the right person to direct it and passed it off to Spielberg. Spielberg had heard of the plan to adapt
The Mighty Atom and the project evolved into a combination of the short story and the Anime and Manga. Spielberg and Kubrick met with the former thinking Kubrick would shoot it down. His only response was “I guess we got the Kiddie Market”[2]
Mamoru Oshii was chosen as the Project head, a controversial decision to some as ten years previously he had greatly damaged the Lupin III franchise with
Lupin III: Tower of Babel. He himself was busy with several projects but agreed to supervise in exchange for funding his future commitments, including an adaptation of
Rainmaker(Which he was rewriting to focus on the Android Police Girl
Gally). It was Oshii’s idea to name the film
28 ½[3].
Fox-Loew Films[4] granted
28 ½ a budget of around $35 million to $50 million, intending to turn it into a blockbuster franchise, though Oshii wound up spending 28 1/2 Million(which some believe is coincidence but was likely intentional on Oshii's part. Critics had a field day making jokes about the Budget being on screen). Oshii turned down plans to reduce the size of the robot from 50 ft to 12 ft by Fox writers Steve Meerson and Peter Krikes. As well as the use of CGI. Oshii insisted on practical effects, which included building actual replicas. Series creator Mitsuteru Yokoyama was given an executive producer credit[5].
The Film moved the events to Modern Day, but still kept the same premise. A robot named Black Ox attacks Japan and the young boy Shotaro Kaneda is guided to his father’s Shoichiro’s robot by his former assistant and must command it into battle against the Nazi created robot Black Ox.
Development on Future Films
The Film did well at the box office. At least enough to warrant further entries in the project.
Mach Go Go Go’s live action adaptation, directed by Julian Temple with Johnny Depp starring, was set for release the following year. In order to boost their catalogue, Tezuka Productions bought up most of the rights to Tatsunoko’s properties. Some like
Genie Family were out of bounds. Hannah Barbara got that one. They were dancing around on
I Dream of Jeanie's Animated show as long lost relatives coming over to visi
t. The characters they did obtain appeared on merchandise with Tezuka characters to promote the partnership[5].
Production on
Dororo entered development hell due to its bizarreness and difficulty in finding a director. However, a solution presented itself. Famed director Akira Kurosawa had been working on a Godzilla film. Simply titled
Gojira for a planned 1997 or 1998 release date. It was agreed through deals with Toho that this would replace
Dororo as the fourth film. This had a knock on effect. There were now 4 confirmed directors on 4 confirmed films, Mamoru Oshii, Akira Kurosawa, Steven Spielberg and Julian Temple. Warner Bros felt Temple lacked the recognition of the big names of the others and so he was replaced by Ron Howard as director for
Mach Go Go Go, who insisted he could still make the 1995 deadline[7]
Earlier on at Conventions in Japan, a four square pattern with the silhouettes of Mighty Atom, Gigantor, Go Mifune and Dororo. The Dororo silhouette was swapped out with Godzilla’s. Merchandise with the old design became collector’s items. Because Dororo’s inclusion had not been publicly revealed and his silhouette was not immediately recognizable at last compared to Gigantor and Atom(Go Mifune was of course just a man with a helmet on but he was popular enough that his inclusion was assumed. Some Jokes were made about the mysterious silhouette from before being Godzilla wearing a wig.
Japan Heroes Universe planned releases
1994:
28 ½ by Mamoru Oshii
1995:
Mach Go Go Go by Ron Howard
1996:
The Mighty Atom by Steven Spielberg
1997:
Gojira by Akira Kurosawa
Notes
[1] This came about by replacing an adaptation of the 1973 live action series Super Robot Red Baron, which received an anime adaptation in 1994. I chose to swap it out with the more well known
Gigantor. OTL Mushi Productions went out of business and Osamu Tezuka lost the rights to Astro Boy briefly just as he wanted to make n animated series bringing the character in color. This lead him to make Jetter Mars in 1977 until he got the rights back, leading to an actual Astro Boy series in 1980 released alongside a Gigantic series. ITTL this led to many assuming the Gigantor show in 1980 was deliberately banking on Astro Boy's success.
This plan to adapt all these characters is akin to OTL’s Shin Japan Heroes Universe, which began in 2016 and consists of
Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman, Evangelion 3.0(retroactively as the outlier. Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno is helming the project and included it. It stands out as it lacks Shin in the title and is animated. It’s also more recent than the others) and
Shin Kamen Rider. There’s no real crossover between the franchises except for a 4D movie between
Shin Godzilla and
Evangelion at Universal Studios Japan and some merchandise such as toys and Pachinko machines from that.
[2] The Film OTL became
A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Ironically OTL an Astro Boy film was in production in 1997 but cancelled because A.I. came out and was too similar. The end result was the
Astro Boy CGI FIlm in 2009.
Kubrick's comments are based on his statement when the script was rewritten and presented to him, which were "Well, we lost the Kiddie Market." since the script was now much darker. Kubrick seemed to admire Spielberg for being a crowdpleaser while Spielberg admired Kubrick's auteur approach. As such I don't think Kubrick would be too mad Spielberg is doing what he admires him for an increasing the story's appeal by connecting it to a beloved character.
[3] OTL Oshii was at one point around 2010 attached to a film adaptation of
Tetsujin but turned it into a stage play instead. Though with a practical Robot prop. I don't speak Japanese but if you want here's a video on it:
Oshii has in an unplanned way become TTL's equivalent to Hideakki Anna in many ways. His
Lupin III: Tower of Babel apocalyptic ending was controversial, just like Hideako Anno's
Evangelion, and he is heading a Heroes Universe project kickstarted by his own film like Anno did with
Shin Godzilla.
[4] Story Time. OTL William Fox founded Fox Films. When his rival Marcus Loew(of Loew's Theatres) died in 1927, Fox made a move to buy is holdings, including 200 theaters, which the family agreed to. Then the Great Depression hit in 1929 and Fox declined and the merger never happened. What was left was bought out by 20th Century Studio and thus 20th Century Fox was born in 1915. 20th Century Fox even claimed for decades that it was founded in 1915 but later changed it to 1935 when the merger happened. ITTL they successfully merged and 20th Century Studios is a separate entity. Fox takes the place of...well..Fox in the movie industry.
[5] There was a planned Gigantor movie around 1994 with the people involved except for Mamoru Oshii. Yes they did plan on making the robot smaller. Cancelled for unknown reasons.
[6] Merchandise exists of several Tezuka and Tatsunoko characters together from a joint 50th anniversary they celebrated in 2013.
[7] ITTL Apollo 13's disaster never happened. So Ron Howard isn't going to be making a movie based on it. The Film would have some stylistic similarities to his 2013 film
Rush, taking inspiration from Formula 1 racing like the recent show ITTL.