According to Deadline.com, Alexandre Aja (PIRANHA 3D) has obtained the rights to the manga and anime space opera Cobra—The Space Pirate.
Not all that well known in the U.S., the Japanese manga was created in 1978 by Buichi Terasawa for the Shonen Jump magazine.
The successful comic book was turned into a an animated movie, and a cartoon series that’s been popular in Europe, where Alexandre Aja watched it growing up.
Long a dream project for him, he’s finaled been able to get the live action film rights, which he belives can be turned into a major space adventure film in 3-D. He is writing the screenplay with Gregory Levasseur and plans produce the film with Levasseur, Marc Sessego and Alexandra Milchan.
The 3-D idea is not just a band-wagon impluse, as the 1982 animated feature SPACE ADVENTURE COBRA was shot using a multi-plane technique, to give the film a feeling of 3-D.
Cobra is a young. blond, cigar-chomping Space Pirate, considered a rogue as he’s refused to ally himself with either the Space Pirates Guild or the United Galaxies. This makes Cobra, who has a weapon built into (or in lieu of ) one of his arms arm, his cbyernetic assistant Lady Armaroid, and his ship the Tortuga the targets of bounty hunters working for either side.
One of them, the sexy and mysterious Jane Royal, becomes something of a love intertest and potential partner in a quest for hidden treasure.
Juding from the cartoon opening, Cobra comes off as a kind of blend of Han Solo and James Bond. There is another level, because at one point, he changed his face and created a new, safe identity—taking the dramatic step of having his original memories supressed. As his adventures progress, he remembers more amd more of his past, and his abilities.