Legendary Pictures has come aboard a live-action film based on Gundam, the popular Mecha anime and sci-fi franchise from Japan’s Sunrise Inc. The two companies will team to produce the first-ever live-action take on the property, and made the announcement at Anime Expo which kicked off today at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The original Gundam series is set in the Universal Century, an era in which humanity’s growing population has led people to emigrate to space colonies. Eventually, the people living in the colonies launch a war of independence against Earth, with the main characters piloting robots known as mobile suits.

Plot details are under wraps. Cale Boyter is overseeing the project on behalf of Legendary along with the Sunrise creative team.

Sunrise’s franchise, created in 1979, includes an anime TV series, manga, animated films, video games, plastic models, toys and novels.

Legendary, which knows of robot battles from its Pacific Rim movies, is now for the release of its Dwayne Johnson-starring pic Skyscraper next week, and has Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Detective Pikachu in postproduction. Its Godzilla vs. Kong movie is also in the works.