Live Action Akira Movie Comes Back from the Dead
We heard reports a couple of months ago that the live action adaptation of the seminal anime flick Akira had lost its director and essentially been shelved, which was no doubt seen by some as a fortunate turn of events. If you were hoping this project would stay dead, however, prepare to be disappointed because this week the Akira feature film looks to be revving its engines all over again.
According to Collider, Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company Appian Way and Warner Brothers are still actively developing the film, and are currently awaiting a new draft of the script from Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby. Fergus and Ostby have some serious geek cred under their belts as they previously worked on the screenplays for Children of Men, Iron Man and First Snow. Apparently their version of Akira is still set in post-apocalyptic Manhattan, but it’s unclear if the adaptation is being planned as two films, as it was previously rumoured. If all goes well, Akira could go into production sometime next year with a pretty substantial budget behind it. What do you think, can it actually work? Do the writers of Children of Men and Iron Man give you hope for a decent live action Akira movie?
Comments (10)
Well, once they change it (which, placing in Manhattan IS a HUGE change), this’ll be the third “version” of Akira produced.
But hey, I really liked Children of Men and Iron Man, and if they’re pumping money into it, go for it? I really wanna know what it”ll look like.
Posted by mark on September 8th, 2009I really wish they would stop trying. Hollywood doesn’t go around making a black Superman or a mexican Batman so we DO NOT NEED a white Kaneda and Tetsuo.
Sure, they might keep character nationalities the same (and have some sort of plot that ALL of Japan was destroyed in WWIII and the survivors immigrated to NYC) but I doubt thats what they want. What was the last Hollywood film starring a Japanese person? …. Yes, hesitant silence is the right answer.
I’ve lost my instinctual disgust for the words “remake” or “reboot”; but this one is just way too horrible to ignore. Practically every cinephile would implode if A Clockwork Orange or Blade Runner was remade and any anime nerd will if this film gets made.. I don’t consider myself an anime fan anymore, but this is still one of only 2 animated films on my top 100 faves list.
Posted by Ryan M. on September 8th, 2009P.S. Lets hope they hire Neill Blomkamp (his handheld style will be a perfect polar opposite to Otomo’s film), have an all Japanese cast so they can make two movies cheaply, and set this all in Tokyo with subtitles. I think a live-action Akira would be awesome; but I’d just hate to see $200m wasted away on something awful.
Posted by Ryan M. on September 8th, 2009I hope they don’t use CGI for the ending.
Posted by JakeTheFatMan on September 8th, 2009I smell “dragon ball”
Posted by Big Hungry on September 8th, 2009I’d certainly be interested to see what those writers could do. I just hope they don’t try too hard to be authentic to the source material and end up making a mess of a movie and a bad adaptation. That said this is already a movie so the conversion to live action should be pretty paint by numbers.
Posted by Ian on September 8th, 2009i wouldnt go about messing with a master piece… i can see in no way that the live action movie would be better than the anime so why make it… i say they shouldnt.
Posted by jim jones on September 9th, 2009I agree that this would be a completely different beast than the anime but hey I’m kinda interested to see their take on it if it’s done well. Writers of “children of men” do sound nice but I’m more curious to see who will take direction control of it.
Posted by Davidchili on September 9th, 2009Well I was just watching the anime version, and looking at it, i think most of it will be most blue screen production, like avatar was. And CGI will be used for most of the film, I think WB are waiting for Avatar to be released, to see how that goes, reg. how they made it, & how it tuned out on screen, forgetting the 3D part of it. And there will be a lot of stunts prep. for the bikers race scene in the first 20 mins of the orginal.
Posted by Phoenix on September 12th, 2009But seeing Matrix, Superman, Batman and some others I acnot think of at the mo’ . I think WB can pull it off, for the visuals that is. And as I remeber when the amime was first released, there was a contest to win a prototpe of that bike, most of it was frabrication, it didnt have computer controlled anti lock breaks or Motor coils. LOL
if kanye can immitate in his video stronger i’m sure WB will have no problem making a half way descent adaptation. I personally love the live action versions of the comic books and animes i loved as a kid. It makes the impossible look possible, and as an adult with the heart of a child, i’m all for it.
Posted by robby james on October 16th, 2009Leave a Reply