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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."
as in simplified story with overobvious plot and a speaker voice that explains things again?
I'm a bit sceptical, I kind of like Akira as it is.
Everybody knows that we are the evil boys, making noise with deadly toys.
and put English subtitles - dubbing always spoils things & why bother making something worse?
Video Game cheats, hints a
take a hint: live action sucks
(eg: The Tick)
if they're goign to make a movie based on a classic anime it should stay anime
$.02
more accessible story [to Western audiences]
Tetsuo: Kaneda!!!!!
Kaneda: Tetsuo!!!!!
Tetsuo: Kaneda!!!!!
Kaneda: Tetsuo!!!!!
Tetsuo: Kaneda!!!!!
Kaneda: "I'm getting too old for this [expletive]"
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
... is hollywood's access to people's wallets ;)
Why mess With Perfection?
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
Norrington told the Reporter that his draft "preserves the tone, the visual and the epic scope of the original, whilst telling a somewhat more accessible story [to Western audiences]."
Akira: dude? where's my motorcycle?
..to fuck up a good thing. About the only thing you can say about some of Norrington's work (like _Death Machine_) was that it was too funny to take seriously. If he tries to modify _Akira_ for the Masses in the US, it's not going to be recognisable. Throw any sense of perspective about the world or evolution out the window, it'll just be a bloodbath.
Really though, I have no idea how they could possibly improve on it. There is no way that they can make a better animated movie, and I don't see how a film could capture the spirit of Akira.
If it's already a classic in one form, why try to remake it? Making it more "accessible" is just anther way of saying "dumbing down". If the remainder of the Western audience doesn't understand the film (in either the subbed or dubbed version) then why the hell would you bother? The movie is a classic for so many reasons on it's own (artistic style, notoriety, story base, etc). I'm probably just pulling a bit out of my ass there, but my point is, if it's already good leave it alone.
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
What's the deal? Why does Hollywood have to take every worthwhile piece of art and ruin it?
Akira wasn't my first introduction to anime, but it was my first experience with anime of its calibre. The music, the story, the animation... it's art.
You are all fartheads.
seriously, I've been a fan of that movie for years. Part of the anime experience is that good films of the genre usually require a good 2, 3 or more viewings to truly capture. Discussions and arguments rise up due to people's different interpretations of these films.
imho the 'western' world doesn't need an adapted or abridged version of a fantastic film. Akira works on more than just the 'film' level, consider the music, which was put together in such a modular way (check out the special edition DVD's second disc for that, it's really slick!)
i just don't think it'll be able to compare, sure it may appeal to a general audience and gross a bunch of $ due to media hyping it up...but it will be just that another money making scheme from the movie industry.
This seems sort of silly, doesn't it? I'm sitting here looking at my 2001 re-release of Akira in which they re-translated and re-dubbed the entire movie to try and make a more comprehensible copy for us westerners. Unless his plan is to make it live-action (dear God no!), I don't see how this will even be worth a look.
There are plenty of people who don't understand "western" movies.
Maybe some people don't relate to Anime because they just don't relate to it, the same way others don't relate to a lot of the hollywood crap.
Since thay cant create they "Copy" aka "Remake" it. Holywood is basicaly bankrupt in the idea department.
;)
Even when they have an orginal ideas the muck it up. Look at Starship Trooper. Good story horrible movie. Just had too mant bugs in it.
This is a bad thing. The odds are it will be Akria in name only unless they change that also!
THeres a huge culture gap between Japan and America. People here (America) just seem to think that Anime is just a cartoon.. for kids. What i like about Anime is that the author/director person can do whatever they want and achieve impossbile camera angels if they wanted. I guess people here prefer seeing live action, I think Akira is a great anime. Anime is a great medium for storytelling, and cheaper too? ( i dont know how much it costs to produce an anime, but you dont have to pay for location permits and the such, and travel expenses)
So really, is it necessary to have to 'adapt' Akira to the western screen? If you want bring the ture akia experience to western audiences, then you shouldnt have to 'adapt' it. WHen i watched dubbed movies, and then the undubbed version i find that alot is lost in just the way the character says a line, infliction is just as important as the actual dialoge. and alot of times,the dub speech and the expression on the characters face just dont match. just my ¥2
Sun is Warm, Grass is Green
Remember when they did the American version of La Femme Nikita with Bridget Fonda or something? They managed to achieve heir vision by removing all elements of style and character, and replacing them with larger explosions.
Great work America.
The latest Akira DVD release has a completely redone script / sub track / dub track that's a more accurate translation of the original. That means we've got as perfect a version as we can get (and with decent dubbing, too!). Stephen can go and make his version; maybe it'll be entertaining.
Now, if they pull the DVD off shelves or never released one in the first place, assuming that the watered down hackjob version Mr. Blade is gonna produce is the best one, then I'd be raging upset. As is I'm only mildly amused, but slightly perturbed at what this means for the future...
If more movie hauses decide this is the way to go -- remake rather than port over. Anime's just starting to get a slim toehold on American theatres (Princess Mononoke, Vampire Hunter D) and having remakes shove them aside is not good.
1. If you don't want to see the new version, don't watch it. Nobody is saying you have to give up your old version of Akira and trade it in for the new one. You don't like it, don't watch it!
2. There's nothing wrong with trying to make something better. Some people might find this new version better, some will like the old version. Not everybody likes the same things.
3. If anything, this will bring the story of Akira to a larger audience, it will get people to wonder where it came from, and they'll seek out the Japanese version of the moive, and the comic books. Then there will be people that will see it for what it was, and they may like it better, or they'll like the newer version better.
To each his own, and if something brings a story to a wider audience, one that would have NEVER seen it otherwise, I say more power too them.
And to the person that brought up La Femme Nikita and the remake (Point of no Return). I saw Point of no Return, thought it was interesting, found out it was a remake of La Femme Nikita, thought it was MUCH better.. and you know what, if they didn't make Point of no Return, I would have NEVER known about La Femme Nikita.
Free Mac Mini
"Fist of the North Star Live action"
Yeah, I'm real hopeful about Akira... ~sigh~
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Is the director of "Blade" making it 'more accessible.'
Pardon me, but Blade was an entertaining but pointless and trite movie. It was not something to be considered an artistic acheivement, in terms of films.
And this guy is going to remake Akira?
Right. It'll be shiny, and ready for the lowest common denominator audience, I'll give him that. But He'll probably toss out everything that seperates "Akira" from a well drawn saturday morning cartoon.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
I agree strongly with the majority of responses so far. Akira is fine the way it is. But, Narrington will make money on this flick. It is inevitatble, the Hollywood machine will continue to roll. Marketers will be there to hype the movie. Special effects artists will be there to "improve" the visual aspect of the movie. Etc. etc.. I for one will not watch this movie. But I strongly suspect that I will be able to read a review, here on /..
I beleive I can fly!
Eye, says I.
I challenge anyone to describe the plot of Akira in a way that is accessible to anyone. Come on folks, have you actually looked at the movie? It may be a great work of animation, but the story seems to be:
Kid rides around future city on motorcycle, gets mixed up with big, secret blob monster, girl gets absorbed by blob monster, scary stuffed animals, blob monster dies eventually, lots of gore and squish.
Perhaps this is some ancient Japanese folk legend that I don't know about?
I wonder if this will be an adaption of the manga, or an adaption of the anime.
The anime was created while the manga was in its early issues with a lot of plotline unresolved. It didnt make an atempt to follow the manga except for use of some set pieces and characters.
A live action adaptation sounds interesting. Unfortunatly, thats 'Street Fighter', 'Gyver' and 'Final Fantasy' interesting. And for me, having run an anime soc, having seen Akira many many times had sucked all the enjoyment out of it already. So I worry that Hollywood will try to suck more.
Akira is my favorite movie, without question. I watch it, without fail, every single night, and will continue too until the day I die. Now I don't want some hack to come in and destroy the good name and image for those who haven't experienced it's amazing presence. And what the hell anyway could he change to appeal to more "western audiences". I mean the fucking movie is set in Japan, part of it's appeal is that it is "Japanese" and fuck all who would care otherwise. Go watch Starship Troopers if you want a good american sci-fi but don't fuck up a legacy.
I've seen Akira on the big screen a few times, and it rocks. I've often wondered if there ever would be a follow up to it, but someone from Hollywood wasn't who I had in mind.
It has always bothered me that alot of anime hasn't been taken seriously for the sheer talent that goes into the story and art. I've always thought that alot (not all) of anime chose to go places that regular film would not or could not (like Akira).
If this project does make it to film, I certainly hope that Norrington doesn't *completely* ruin it. At very least it will bring new viewers to the original version Akira (even if its dubbed in English), and that can't be a bad thing, can it?
Akira was a great comic series. I was turned on to it during the late 80's when Eclipse Comics was translating Japanese manga into English. The story was compelling and just, well great. I saw the 2nd generation of Akira. At the time I didn't read Japanese and didn't have the original version in the original language. We all know how much is lost in translation. (For some really wild LotR's tranlation check out Here.)
I then found out that there was Movie(!) of Akira. Too cool. I went to see it and I was really flaberghasted. What the hell is with the Tetsuo blowing up into a huge gross ameba?
Now we have someone that is going to Reinterpret it AGAIN? How will it be changed to be made more accessable? Will Tetsuo Just put a gun to his own head and shoot Akira? That'd make accessable sence. Oh well. I will NOT be in line to see this.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"First things first -- but not necessarily in that order"
-- The Doctor, "Doctor
"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."
Well, then don't watch the remake. The original is still out there.
Sure, I wouldn't have high hopes for a remake either, but then again you never know. A lot of film buffs have been highly skeptical about certain films (sequels, overbudget blockbusters, strangely-casted movies, remakes, etc.), only to eat crow later on when the film does well / is highly praised / wins some Oscars. Lately that has been happening a lot less, but perhaps they might make a good movie - not spectacular, but good - that would turn a new crowd of people to the original.
Or, the film could suck, and the critics would say "Rent the original, forget the remake". Either way, some of us are destined for some good cinema.
Allow me to play devil's advocate and say this might not be such an awful idea, so long as it is clear that it is a redone film and that the original is mentioned somewhere during the credits.
Any American who claims to understand this film entirely is mistaken...the plot and meaning of all of the elements is understandable, but none of us fully understand the culture and context the story exists in. Think about most any American film...it doesn't translate verbatim to Japanses culture. Do they really understand Pulp Fiction? No...the conversations lose their touch when it's not in your native language. Does American Pie translate well at all? Doubt it...their culture is very different than ours.
I'm expecting nothing spectacular, but it might be good. I wish him luck!
Matt
I know this is blastphemy, but I have seen Akira in dubbed form, subtitled form and in the original Japanese form (yes, I do speak Japanese) and I really don't find it to be the amazing film that everyone else seems to. I think Japan has much better animated films to offer than this one.
I will say that the Japanese version is much better than the other two since translators never can seem to get things quite right; or at least the nuances don't seem to make it through to English to me anyway.
I do agree with other sentiments here though that remaking Akira in a more accessible==dumbed down version is not a good thing.
Apart, from the opening motorcycle chase, everything in the movie is big, your talking about massive riots (one of the themes of the movies is about society tearing itself apart), a military crackdown, and a climax where one of the leads turns into a hugh bloated mess.
Ofcourse, I thought that bringing lord of the rings to the big screen was impossible as well.
If you, really, want to do a live action manga then your best bet would be that Perfect Blue, being a movies which would work well as a thrillar. Not that I saying they should do that either.
Pianist : Some jerk whos taught themselves how to type in rhythm
Last night I saw a TV rerun that thoroughly illustrates this logic. Diagnosis Murder is probably the most unabashedly clichéd, corny, gimmicky and just plain stupid show in recent history. But I'd wanted to see this particular episode for a long time, every since reading Jenni Ringley's mini-memoir of her stint as a TV murder victim.
If you're a JenniCam fan, don't watch this episode to see a lot of JR. She gets maybe 5 seconds of screen time, plus a B&W head-and-neck "autopsy photo." So why bother seeking out the original Cam Girl for a part that could be played by almost any 20-something female? Business. JR probably got more exposure posing with the rest of the cast for PR photos than she did on the show itself. She was there to help geneate buzz, not to act.
The akira anime is already an adaption of the Akira mangas (comics) by Katsuhiro Otomo.
Will he do another adaption of these mangas or do a adaption of the anime, resulting in a akira movie that hasn't anything to do with the original manga work of Otomo ?
Jan
Akira is about a theme that has been touched on by many Sci-Fi authors. That the ultimate form of evolution for human beings will be when we achive Pure energy. Humans will become a conciousness of unlimited power. In akira the government is performing expirements on children in attempts to tap into some of this power. Akira went to far fully transforming into an energy being an the power of his transformation destroyed the city. Tetsuo eventually becomes so powerful the same thing happens. meanwhile though as he's transforming he loses control of his body. Akira returns to help Tetsuo Transfrom, and together they use the energy realeased from Tetsuos Rebirth to create a new universe of which they are the gods, hence the whole Galaxies and Stuff at the end.
Of course this is by no means definative, this is just my take on the movie, that's what makes it so good, that it's open to interpretation.
-Mishra
Akira struck me as a very cold film with a lot of neat looking effects and interesting takes on psi-power, but which ultimately had no heart and virtually nothing significant to say at all.
Unfortunately, while there is a handful of rather amazing exceptions, this could describe nearly all of the media which comes out of Japan. A very 'obedient' nation which spends a great deal of energy actively punishing anybody who dares express their individuality, and anybody who comes up with anything even remotely resembling a new idea. Careful shadings of old ideas are all that are acceptable. --According to a few friends who moved away as soon as they were old enough, I am assured that Japan was NOT a fun place to grow up.
-Fantastic Lad
Disney could bring the artwork up to date, giving the characters a more modern, American look and feel. Like they did with Winnie the Pooh and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Robin Williams could add some comic relief. It'd be great.
I think the lead up (most of the movie) was pretty cool, but I agree that the ending was kinda lame.
Still an enjoyable movie, for me. I even own it on DVD.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
right here
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Akira was really about the Trial of Best Friends being split apart by something thrust into their lives that they couldnt control. It was an exmplary expression of the inherent im-balence between most best friends, showing Tetsuo's Jealousies of Kanada, and Kanada's own problems being an orphan and a kid without direction. The thing thrust between them is of course the military research from WW III... The Akira project. Akira was actualy just another boy like Tetsuo who was injected/exprimented on with brain and mind over matter enhancments... eventually becomming too powerfull for the goverment and himself. The resultant plotline revolves around a de-stabilizing culture still suffering the ravages of WW III, The movie explores the depth of a broken society by using the two main chracters deeply intertwined love/hate relationship that takes them through ALL clases of neo-tokyo, from the impoverished kids and gangs, to the wealthy and corrupt goverment leaders to the rebelious masses who are straining for revolt to the college kids with grand ideas of reshaping the future to the terrorists urging and pushing for a rebelion. Meanwhile Kanada and Tetsua are fighting a very simple battle that most best friends fight constantly, who is the top dog.
The magic of Akira is its ability to Delve into all these areas with phenominal depth while capturing the viewer with a very real and very plain struggle. Think of how many times youve been jealous of your best friend and there you have the center of Akira. It goes back to when we all used to fight with our GI Joe's, who got to be king cobra or Hawk, who got to be optimus prime or StarScream, who got to be skeletor or He-man.
I fear that Norrington will miss and destroy the original films scope by trivializing the story in face of big explosions and not so great Computer Generated scenes. I sincerly DONT believe the movie needs to be made accesible at all... I only speak and understand english and have (in my own opinion) captured and understood the entire movie without any need for westernization (english dub of course).
I also Believe that this move CAN be done as live action succesfully, it would be sheer excelence if directly ported to 35mm, scene for scene reproduction would be excelent to watch... however i fear the movie will be made shorter eliminating the truely great storyline extrapalations and additionaly i doubt the american characters will have the chemistry necesary to discribe how close kanada and tetsua and the others are. It'll probably end up with Kanada a brad pitt looking white guy, tetsua a Chris rock or some other short and loud person, Kay just a beutifull dumb chick with reduced lines and reduced character (like storm from the XMEN movie), and other non-sensical characters.
The beuty of Akira is its reality, all the chracters are distinctly Japenese from Japan, no cross-culture characterizing conflicts, they simply are japanese street kids. I myself am a mulatto american street kid with little resemblance and very minute cultural similarities to this films premise, and what i enjoy most about this film, is it doesnt try to pander to my "background". It simply is a story that tells it like it is (or would be) without trying to be translated into my environment. I can only imagine how horrible an American Akira out of the Ghetto would/could be.... on the other hand... it could be astoundingly good....
But with this guys track record.... looks like Akira's gonna get mangled
--Idiots, Every single one of YOU, A flaming mass of conglomerated morons, hey wait a second, isnt that how RAID works?
There was a love intrest in Akira, Remember?
Btw, it's so annoying the way it seems every movie seems to be set in LA. That city just seems dull and boring people call it "A giant suburb" New york, Seattle, Hong kong... there are so many more intresting places to set things. bleh.
If they moved Akira to LA it would ruin the movie. What else would they do, replace "bike punks" with Bling-bling steriotypical Gang Bangers? (well, that would be pretty funny, actualy)
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Also, does anyone own the new DVD version of Akira? They redid the english dubbing and I it sucks. I miss the dub from the original US release.
What are you talking about? The old dub was terrible!
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
We could go from the jarring "shokto-HE-Ha-HE-ha" to "Baby, he-haaaaaaa, he-haaaaaaaooo!"
(Pardon my complete lack of knowledge of the original Japanese lyrics, or how to represent them).
Second, someone complained about plot. Akira may or may not have a simple plot. It doesn't really mater. Complaining about plot is like complaining that poetry doesn't rhyme; it indicates a lack of sophistication. Any sufficiently advance piece of art is going to have several perspectives, and the plot one takes away will depend on one's perspective. For instance, In The Bedroom might be a film about the failing of children, the unfairness of the legal system, or the tragedy of love. If one cannot find a relevant issue, the movie will not have an accessible plot. BTW, man coming out retirement to save world, man killing many people, man saves world, is not a plot of any consequence.
As we all know, IP must (eventually) be free, and we must have the freedom to advance that IP, even if such advancement seems silly. Peace Out.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Somebody shoot that guy
Technoli
That adaptation was pretty damn terrible. the silliest thing is that someone actually believed that La Femme Nikita was not accessible to american audiences.
The cultural rift between the US and France is not that great you know.
Bullshit.
If you liked the film, then that's fine. But don't go making up some baloney to justify a 2-dimensional director scrabbling to look deep and thoughtful beyond his measure. --Who, while no doubt influenced by the current psychological state of his culture and the 'Subtleties of Shinto Bhudism', was almost certainly not trying to make any points about it any more than most American film makers try to jam kitsch Christ imagery into any given Western pop culture film. --At least I hope not, because that WOULD have been a desperate bid for substance.
He ripped off the ending from 2001, for crying out loud! This film was pretty graphics and a violent, depressing, boring, say-nothing story.
The only thing which Akira DID achieve, (beyond it's technical excellence at the time), was to replay certain interesting ideas about human transformation which just happened to be a helluva lot closer to the mark than most people are willing to or capable of admitting. Too bad it was all presented with flat, unlikable characters and an over-arching sense of, "This Is A Very Important Movie, So It Must Be Treated With The Utmost Seriousness."
Yawn.
Not much different from "Ghost in the Shell", or "Wings of Whateveritwascalled".
It's like, the moment a film goes over a certain budget in Japan, the script doctors feel compelled to bore us to death with fake intellectualism.
Newsflash: Being 'Smart' in no way means it can't also be 'Entertaining'.
Kurosawa knew how to make a film. Juzo Itami knows how to make a film. Hayo Miyazaki knows how to make a film. Hell, the first ten episodes of Dragonball did more honest & insightful work than Akira! (Before it turned into a brainless and endless WWF style kung-fu showdown.)
Akira was pretty fluff made by a production house terrified of not looking smart.
-Fantastic Lad
Hollywood is just too scared to release completely original material.
That happens less and less nowadays.
Makes perfect bussiness sence - release a movie that has already been seen and already has an audience.
Well, this is certainly interesting. I'm not too terribly concerned about it right now, because I know how great Otomo's Akira is. (It was great for me, anyway. If you don't like it, that's fine with me.)
I propose that we wait and see. When the remake is released, one of two major scenarios will occur:
~Scenario I~
John Doe, American TV-Watcher: "That movie was good/great/awesome/cool/etc."
Bob Smith, Otaku: "Since you liked that, why not see the original? If you have any questions about it, I'd be happy to answer them."
~Scenario II~
John Doe: "That movie sucked/was horrible/etc."
Bob Smith: "Yeah, the adaptation was badly done. You might like the original better. If you have any questions, just let me know."
You see, whether the adaptation turns out to be good or bad is less important than what we, the anime-experienced, do to introduce the viewers to the original Akira. The adaptation can be a portal, an introduction to anime for those who don't know about it, or whose knowledge consists of what anime they see on American television (which, if you think about it, is all adapted in some form before it reaches the networks/cable).
goa or psy trance remixes with the original AKIRA music would be killer in my opinion. I swear I heard a track at a record shop being played that had part of the first motorcycle scene's music looped in it.
or maybe i should just lay off the illegal subs*cough*.......
Anonymous Coward riling people up again? Jeez, seems to be he posts in *every* story, a hell of a lot too - I think it's time he started looking for a job.
:)
The latest Akira DVD release has...
Can you give the ASIN number?
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
Why do American film producers always see the need to take great anime and turn it into live-action? It doesn't make it better. I mean, if you could turn an apple into an orange, is it a better fruit?
Ally McBeal:
"Oh no!! This dancing mutant cyborg baby will destroy us all!!"
LotR: The Fellowship
"Hobbit..... Transformer..... POWER!!"
Friends:
"Mua hahaha... Chandler will think we're his roommates up until the minute we drink his soul energy!"
Scream:
"What's your FAVORITE tentacle movie?"
I could go on forever....
A story that originally took many volumes of manga to tell is compressed to an hour and a half;
And yet, the movie made sense and the manga didn't. Hmm. Believe me, I would have read the manga if I could. Same for Battle Angel. It was all ridiculous, as are most comics, to be honest.
I've seen (at least some of) all of the above (I'm an anime junkie), but I've never seen anything with the scope and quality of animation of Akira.
Evangelion is probably my all-time favorite, but the animation is nothing to write home about. The animation in Akira is stunning. Metropolis is probably the closest I've ever seen, but it doesn't quite approach the grandeur of Akira.
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