Over the weekend, I found out that William Winkler, the guy who directed the English dub of the 1975 Japanese animated T.V. series "Tekkaman The Space Knight", had so far completed writing, producing, and directing a pilot feature to promote the U.S. live-action film based on the 1978 Japanese animated T.V. series "SF Saiyuki Starzinger", which in turn was a space opera re-imagining of the Chinese classic mythology novel "Journey To The West". According to Winkler, the pilot itself was sponsored by Toei, the same company responsible for producing the anime itself, and while two versions of the pilot shot (a 3-minute ver. and a 9-minute one), the president of American broadcasting T.V. network SyFy was satisfiedwith the pitch. In the meantime, Winkler awaits for a response from Toei on the next step in the movie project.

In case you're not familiar with "SF Saiyuki Starzinger", it tells the story of Moon Princess Aurora and her three cyborg companions (Jan Kugo, Sir Djorgo, and Don Haka) as they travel to the Great Planet in search of the key to restore Galaxy Energy and bring balance back into the universe as the planet's queen is aging further. The series itself was created by Leiji Matsumoto (creator of "Captain Harlock" and "Galaxy Express 999" and director of the original "Space Battleship Yamato") with Osamu Tezuka (creator of "Tetsuwan Atom", "Black Jack", and "Jungle Empereor Leo") and was used by Jim Terry Productions back in 1980 to make the "Spaceketeers" part of "Force Five" for the U.S. audiences.

Check out SciFi Japan for more on William Winkler and his work.

12:28 PM Canada EST