10 Awesome Sci-Fi Films That Need To Escape Development Hell
7. Neon Genesis Evangelion
Arguably one of the most popular anime series' to have reached Western shores, audiences have already had something of taster of the themes of Neon Genesis Evangelion in Guillermo del Toro's lightweight but entertaining Pacific Rim. It too features robots the size of skyscrapers with humans operating them by synching their nervous systems with the machine, but in the case of Evangelion the operators are children. Pacific Rim made it clear that CGI has advanced far enough to make anime-style science fiction a reality - despite their endless list of shortcomings, the Transformers series also demonstrated that complex visual effects have reached a stage now where previously "unfilmable" projects such as Neon Genesis Evangelion can be transformed into live-action movies without detracting from the aesthetic qualities of the source material. And Evangelion has an immediate advantage over both these franchises, given that is has a solid script with believable and engaging characters, something both del Toro and Michael Bay failed to deliver. First announced in 2003 on the wave of a resurgent interest in anime in the West, Neon Genesis Evangelion has been floating around aimlessly in the void of development hell ever since. Tentative rumours of talks underway resurfaced more recently in 2009, but quickly faded out - it remains to be seen whether or not the "ultimate mecha" anime translates into a Hollywood blockbuster.
