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Live-Action Remake of Akira
GusherJizmac writes "Looks like Warner Bros. is looking to remake classic anime, Akira, as a live
action feature-length film. Will current computer generated special effects be enough to bring this masterpiece to life?" We touched on this earlier, but now it looks closer to production, since Norrington has finished shooting for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
What will the cash cows think of next? I mean this is just an attempt to capitalize on an already successful movie. In other words, no matter how shitty this movie is a lot of people will go to see it anyway. And it will probably be pretty bad....
All apologies to the CGI geniuses out there, but there is no way in hell your graphics will match the insanity that was Akira.
Akira isn't just a movie, it's a work of art. There are just some things that don't translate from comic books to live action, and at the bottom of that list is Akira.
"In the process, the biker must do battle with anti-government activists, greedy politicians and irresponsible scientists."
How about dealing with the societal and ethical impacts of forced and natural evolution and experimentation? Or maybe I was watching a different movie...
...that makes us have to redo a cartoon as live action? I just don't get it. The rest of the world doesn't view cartoons as just something for the Saturday morning kiddies, but here if you watch anime, most people look at you like you have two heads.
It would actually be nice if Disney would just release all of those old Japanese Anime titles they bought up as DVD's with English Sub and Dub tracks. Instead they bastardize them into some multi million dollar flop. *sigh*
- No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades really cramps his style.
I don't think messing up anime into films is a good idea.. The only thing good i can think of that is that it will get greater exposure, but as in the case of Dragon Ball Z, Pokémon, and countless other victimized animes, is this really what we want? These animes were just fine until some media exec decided to pay the language translation & dubbing people the minimum wage..
I argue for animation because I believe it provides an additional dimension for film art; it frees filmmakers from the anchor of realism that's built into every live-action film, and allows them to visualize their imaginations. Animation need not be limited to family films and cheerful fantasies. The Japanese have known that for years....
The thought of what a live action Akira might be like scares me.
At one level, this is true, there is no way that live-action can duplicate anime, but the re-creation of this classic is not about duplicating a piece of anime, but presenting a great story to an audience which would otherwise never experience it.
Also, providing conciencious marketing, attention can be drawn to the fact that the live-action version is based on an anime film, so it may draw new viewers for the original and perhaps anime as a whole.
--CTH
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
If you concede that The Matrix was almost live-action anime, they might just be able to pull this off.
Think about the early chase sequence between the agent and Trinity. Now think about the chase late in the movie in the open-air market, complete with Ghost in the Shell-style exploding watermelons. They might just be able to make it happen.
I write in my journal
You know, I disagree. After thinking about it for a while, I must admit that what I like the most about Akira is NOT what can't be reproduced with current live action techniques. I don't care that much about the blood, the extreme violence or tetsuo's tentacly arms extending tens of meters.
I loved akira for its representation of a degenerated (realistic?) society, for the oppressed yet special lives that those kids lived, for tetsuo's insecurities and his relationship with kaneda, for the magnitude of devastation that one powerful deranged kid, that in all honesty could have been me or any of you, brought about tokyo. It's this apocaliptic view that made it a classic for me, and surely they can do that in a live action movie. It won't be easy, but nether was LOTR, and they pulled it off quite nicely in my opinion.
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those with good memory.
we need live action akira like we need anime plan 9 from outer space...
akira looked "cool" but that was about it -- the story was total spaghetti.
Well, first off, watch it outside the mindframe of a jaded anime fan, and remember when this came out. 1988. What did we (outside of Japan)have as the epitome of anime at the time?
Macross (Robotech for those less versed): Semi okay anime, but still stock and standard for the time.
Gundam: Once again, stock and standard.
As far as "true" masterpieces in anime go, the best things released were Ninja Scroll, Wings of Honneamise (actually a damnned kewl flick, from the makers of FLCL and Evangelion), and of course for the umpteen bazillionth time, Vampire Hunter D.
So as far as mainstream examples go, in 1988, anime was a pretty dismal market in the US. Almost no real exposure or basis for comparison to measure Akira by.
Therefore, by 1988's standards, Akira rocked. Same way that in 1976, Star Wars kicked ass, because there were no prior examples to measure it by. However, with current tech in special effects and all, anyone could make a comparable film that could kick it's ass just as easily, for substantially less than it originally cost, in comparative dollars.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
"I loved akira for its representation of a degenerated (realistic?) society"
I can't even watch the riot scene from the opening of Akira without thinking "Welcome to the Seattle WTO protests!" nowadays.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Back when they remade "Psycho" a couple of years ago, someone made the astute observation that filmmakers should remake BAD movies, in order to try and improve them, not GOOD ones. What's the point in remaking a classic? Odds are, you're just going to fuck it up. With bad movies, there's nowhere to go but up.
(By "bad" I mean everything that isn't a classic, so remaking mediocre movies like "The Thomas Crown Affair" is fine.)
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
Norrington can't capture the style.
The anime captured the manga's style because the same guy made the manga and wrote/directed the anime. Norrington's a different guy using a different style. The only director who I think can do Akira's style in live action is James Cameron, who has other plans and wouldn't do it anyway because it's too similar to Terminator 2. If Norrington is mainly interested in Akira's cyberpunk/post-apocalypse style, he should have stuck with Blade or another screenplay because this way he's up against Akira's baggage and The Matrix sequels.
What Akira's anime lost was substance: it only told about 1/4 of the manga's story, and what it kept it rearranged. If he made two 3-hour movies (split conveniently before and after the apocalypse), he could get most of the manga's storyline. That way an Americanized live action version of Akira may actually feel closer to the manga than the anime version did. But does he have the guts to do that?
And even if he had the energy to make it, could he withstand the bad PR? Akira stars a loser teen who gets to act out revenge fantasies and orgies (think Columbine) and its big event is another boy who shows his fear of murder by blowing up a city (think WTC). For Norrington to get the $100M or so needed to make Akira, he'd have to remove those parts, risking ruining the plot.