Skydance Productions is in the process of acquiring the rights to the 1970s anime Star Blazers (aka Space Battleship Yamato).  According to Deadline, Skydance head David Ellison will hire Christopher McQuarrie (Valkyrie) to pen the script.  For those unfamiliar with Star Blazers, the story centers on an old spaceship in the year 2199 that must go to another planet and pick up a device that can save the Earth, which has been under seige from hostile aliens using radioactive warfare.  The anime was adapted in Japan and released last year, but obviously this new version would be in English.  David Ellison, who is the brother of Paul Thomas Anderson savior Megan Ellison, struck up a relationship with McQuarrie over Top Gun 2.Ellison and Skydance Productions are setting up to be a major player at Paramount.  Not only has their backing of True Grit led to a box office smash, they're also co-financing Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the Jack Ryan reboot, Top Gun 2, My Mother's Curse, License to Steal (a Shane Salerno script about high-end repo agents), and an untitled Charlize Theron comedy.  He's also developing the comic The Strange Case of Hyde, but that currently doesn't have a studio.