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Blade Director to Adapt 'Akira' For Western Audiences
dswensen writes: "According to the Sci-Fi Channel web site, Steven Norrington (director of Blade) is going to write and direct an adaptation of the classic anime Akira. Norrington says his story 'preserves the tone, the visual and the epic scope of the original, whilst telling a somewhat more accessible story [to Western audiences]." The article doesn't mention whether the adaptation will be animated or live-action. Given Norrington's track record and the butchery that usually takes place under the guise of making something 'accessible,' it's hard to take this as extraordinarily good news."
The year is 2019, 31 years after Tokyo was destroyed by a top secret weapons project during World War III. Now, Neo-Tokyo has risen from the ashes to become a dark and dangerous megalopolis infested with gangs and terrorists. The government seethes with corruption and only maintains token control over the powerful military that prevents total chaos and hides the secrets of the past.
Childhood friends Tetsuo and Kaneda plunge into Neo-Tokyo's darkest secret when their motorcycle gang encounters a military operation to retrieve an escaped experimental subject. Tetsuo, captured by the military, is subjected to experiments that make him a powerful psychic, but, unfortunately for Neo-Tokyo, Tetsuo's powers rage out of control and he lashes out at the world that has oppressed him! Nothing can stop the destructive forces that Tetsuo wields except possibly the last boy to destroy Tokyo - Akira!
Actually I'd say that the movie plays out more like:
Punk biker gang encounters deformed child escaped from lab...which sparks the latent abilities in one of them. He starts to develop his powers slowly, exhibiting less self restraint (all the while distubring his best friend)...eventually to be captured by the organization who has the children. Friends try to rescue him, but he's now enstranged. Said company accelerates his powers, he becomes uncontrollable, listens to the voice in his head to find Akira, the most powerful child who is locked in a vault (all the while destroying anything in his path to get there). He gets the body parts of Akira, who was too powerful ("creation force" or something like that), which gets reassembled...while his powers are taking over him turning him into a blob thingy. The psychic kids and all that fighting and such is too big for this dimension, so the newly reassembled Akira whisks them all away to another dimension for the safety of all.
Haven't watched it in a while though. I do know the main story is basically the seperation of two friends and the confusion and effort to save between them...it just happens to be latent superpowers that seperate them.
An American adaption makes me very wary...I mean, sure, it could work out and be a solid movie and get people to watch the anime...but this is a best case scenario. More likely, studios will spend tons of money on it (when they could have made something else, this is the thing to remember for people saying to just ignore it!) and it'll ruin Akira's reputation. Come on, this was originally something like a set of 8 250+ page comics...it was cut down a bit for the anime *already*....