The live-action film version of the popular anime/manga/game franchise 'Robotech' has a new writer, according to sources close to the project.

Comics2Film at Mania.com can exclusively reveal that award-winning novelist and UK TV writer Tom Rob Smith has taken over writing duties on the project.

'Robotech' has been in development as a film since 2007, with Tobey Maguire, Akiva Goldsman ('Jonah Hex'), Charles Roven ('The Dark Knight') and Jason Netter ('Wanted') among the producers on the project. Maguire is rumored to be starring the in the movie as well.

Smith is best known for his 2008 breakout novel "Child 44", about a series of child murders in Russia circa 1950. The book won several awards and the film rights were quickly snapped up as a vehicle for Ridley Scott to direct. His follow-up book, "The Secret Speech" was released last month.

Although he's a relative newcomer to Hollywood, our sources tell us that Smith's previous writing impressed the 'Robotech' filmmakers. "He had a very clear vision for the material that seemed to fit the collective group's vision for the property," a source close to the project said.

Previous drafts of the 'Robotech' script have been penned by Lawrence Kasdan and Alfred Gough & Miles Millar.

 Writer: Rob M. Worley  | Source: http://www.mania.com/exclusive-robotech-gets-new-writer_article_115831.html

For those wondering who Tom Rob Smith is, Wikipedia comes to the rescue. Apparently he is an English writer who received an Ian Flemming Steel Dagger award in 2008 by the Crime Writers' Association for his first novel Child 44. The novel is about a series of child murderds in Stanlist Russia and it was apparently translated into 17 languages. With a follow-up novel published on April this year The Secret Speech. IMDb credits him for the novels and writing on TV shows: Doctors (2 episodes 2003-2004); Gap Year (2004) and Today's the Day (2003).

Like most fans you must be thinking to yourself: "Uh, this guy has never done anything other than a couple of TV shows and has no Sci-Fi background at all!!!" Once again we are asked to keep an open mind. First we had Lawrence Kasdan and we were extremely excited about the prospects of his writing. After the ground-work was laid, WB decided to bring their own SMALLVILLE writers into the mix to polish up the script. Now, the plot thickens in the third installment as the unknown English writer is brought in.

Who knows, this could be a formula for success as WB has proven this before with THE DARK KNIGHT and SPIDERMAN. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that [a giant of script writers] + [contemporary script polish] + [unknown award winning novelist for perspective] = SUCCESSFUL FILM.

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treiz wrote on June 25, 2009

Title: interesting any news is good news, especially when it's not bad news.

Last_Valk_Standing wrote on June 27, 2009

Title: Awesome! Alright! well we know that with this many ppl from the various back grounds there is a good change for a dynamic and very refined scripts. I'm excited

MEMO1DOMINION wrote on June 27, 2009

Title: HEHEHE LIKE I SAID, DONT RUSH ROBOTECH. WE ALL KNOW FOR IT TO BE THE BEST, LET THE WRITTERS GIVE LIFE TO IT FIRST. AT LEAST NOW WE KNOW WB IS MAKING SURE ALL OPTIONS TO THIS MOVIE IS ON THE TABLE.