Americanized version of Akira green-lit by Warner.

[AbZeroNow]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...film-green-lit


I guess this film is going to definitely to be a "Scrappy Film" to a lot of anime fans. I am not to keen on the idea of turning Tetsuo and Kaneda into white guys since if they are going to change so the characters are American, they should at least try for diversity in the cast.

I have some ambivalent feelings about this news anyway since I didn't actually like the 1988 movie of Akira(yes, I respect the visuals of it and what it did to bring anime here to America) and the success of this movie could mean that more anime could be turned into live-action film. Of course, that could mean that some of our favorite shows could be butchered by people who want to banish any trace of anything Japanese about it, but maybe, just maybe someone will actually have the guts to do it right and keep the Japanese-ness of it and bring new fans in that otherwise would never seen the original material.

So, my fellow AnimeSuki denizens, are you optimistic or pessimistic about Hollywood ever getting an anime adaptation right?

[Zenemis]

It's not so much that they want to banish everything Japanese, though of course they will.

The idea for these is to take the core premise, and retell it in an American setting, not necessarily to retell the original story.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

I heard from Comingsoon.net that the guy who played the main character in Tron Legacy (forgot the actor's name) is being considered to play Kaneda (or whatever the name Hollywood will give to that character). Tbh, with a 90 million budget these days, I doubt that they can bring the futuristic setting of the original well, let alone doing a lot of the action in an amazing way. I for one don't mind the transition of the characters from Asian/Japanese into Caucasian as long as they do the story right. As both a movie & anime fan, I DO hope this movie to succeed and opens the way to more ‘serious’ adaptations of anime. Still, I also have this slight feeling that this movie will fail in Dragonball-Evo proportion, so I don't know whether I'm being optimistic or pessimistic about this anymore.

PS: Please James Cameron, hurry up and make an adaptation of Battle Angel Alita like you promised. I really want to see an anime adaptation made by a ‘serious’ Hollywood director T-T. So far, the only 'acceptable' anime adaptation that we got is Speed Racer, Astro Boy and the first Transformers. Even those're not genuine anime adaptations, but the Americanized version.

[Soliloquy]

I'm not even a least bit fond of Akira but I just wish Hollywood stops messing with it or anything comes from Asia for that matter. They only do half-assed research and make a cheap imitation of it. If they gonna remake a film at least do a good job even if they are going to whitewash it. They are gonna make a pissfest out of it unless the better directors are attached to it like David Fincher or Terry Gilliam that are very unlikely.

[Akito Kinomoto]

Was Dragon Ball Evolution not enough? Was the live-action Negima! not enough? Was The Last Airbender (not an anime, I know) not enough?!

Stop the madness. Say no to live-action.

[Larthak]

Originally Posted by Akito_Kinomoto

Was Dragon Ball Evolution not enough? Was the live-action Negima! not enough? Was The Last Airbender (not an anime, I know) not enough?!

Stop the madness. Say no to live-action.

Truth spoken, stuff like that never ends well. It's a recipe for disaster.

[Guernsey]

Hasn't live action done enough damage to Negima and DBZ? I hope they don't catch on to NGE because if Hollywood gets their hands on it, there is going be hell to pay.

[Master_Yoma]

Sigh yet again there trying and all there going to do is fail

[totoum]

I'm not judging this until I know who's directing,it being americanised desn't bother me.

Warner seems to actualy have hired someone competent for Death Note so here's hoping they'll do the same here.

[AbZeroNow]

Originally Posted by Zenemis

It's not so much that they want to banish everything Japanese, though of course they will.

The idea for these is to take the core premise, and retell it in an American setting, not necessarily to retell the original story.

Yeah, I know they are probably going for a Seven Samurai into Magnificent Seven type retelling, and perhaps they will change the title from Akira to someone else. I am worried that they'll keep the Akira title, and butcher the story so we're left with a dumb post-apocalyptic action movie with motorcyles and psychic powers. I wouldn't put it past them to not use the word "ESPer" even though it is an English word.

Originally Posted by Akito_Kinomoto

Was Dragon Ball Evolution not enough? Was the live-action Negima! not enough? Was The Last Airbender (not an anime, I know) not enough?!

Stop the madness. Say no to live-action.

Never saw any of those, and my sister is a huge Avatar: The Last Airbender fan so she was quite annoyed at the "whitewashing" of the characters. I also thought they should have went with a more diverse cast for the Last Airbender since they had a bunch of unknowns anyway. But Last Airbender was panned for other reasons too.

Originally Posted by Guernsey

Hasn't live action done enough damage to Negima and DBZ? I hope they don't catch on to NGE because if Hollywood gets their hands on it, there is going be hell to pay.

Actually, it's been rumored for years that Hollywood would do a live-action Eva. I somehow imagine Hollywood would make Shinji less whiny, they'd turn Rei into some hot girl for no reason, and they'd have Shinji and Asuka have a happy ending. Although for some reason, I'd think Hollywood could do a decent Negima adapatation. They'd probably age him up a few years and maybe age the girls up a little too but since Negi is Welsh, Evangeline is English, Ayaka is implied to be only half-Japanese and well I don't quite remember where they claimed Asuna was from in the beginning but I think it was some Western country(I am of course trying not to put a spoiler here) so as long as they cast Konoka, Setsuna, Nodoka and Yue right, I don't think they could do any worse than the Negima live-action program or the Xebec animated version.

Originally Posted by totoum

I'm not judging this until I know who's directing,it being americanised desn't bother me.

Warner seems to actualy have hired someone competent for Death Note so here's hoping they'll do the same here.

The article says that the guy who did House of Wax as well as Unknown is attached to the film. I have not seen any of his films so I can't judge if he's a competent director or not.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by AbZeroNow

The article says that the guy who did House of Wax as well as Unknown is attached to the film. I have not seen any of his films so I can't judge if he's a competent director or not.

House of Wax is a mediocre movie at best, while Unknown is pretty good only because Liam Neeson was in it as main character.

So, is this director competent? If you use his movies as a reference, then he's a pretty average director. Still, let's just hope for the best.

[klare]

i have never watch the live-action Dragonball but i have seen the trailer and heard enough to know how was it

will wait till the trailer to decide, however i do have some expectations as Warner surely has a higher budget

[Echoes]

Meh.

It will probably not be very good, anime adaptations rarely are. However, I'm more on the page of not even caring. Hollywood is remaking, re-imagining, prequel-ing and sequel-ing like never before, and I've just stopped trying to keep up with it. Even if it was competently done, I wouldn't be very excited. It's an animated movie; I don't need or want to see it in live-action. The slick and dark visuals are such a big part of Akira, any remake will have trouble recreating that, and if it's Americanized, then of course there's not even a chance that it'll resemble its former self.

Hearing that the man responsible for House of Wax is making is just another nail in the coffin. That movie was abominable.

[creb]

Well, for those of us who thought Akira was one of the most overrated anime ever, we will watch this Hollywood adventure in bringing it to live action with a mixture of glee and horror. Sort of like seeing how Hollywood can make it even worse.

[speedyexpress48]

So, Hollywood ran out of 80's TV shows to adapt and are now looking at anime?

I do not see this going well.

[Guernsey]

Originally Posted by speedyexpress48

So, Hollywood ran out of 80's TV shows to adapt and are now looking at anime?

Apparently so. Thye should had gone to 90s shows if that is what they needed to make money.

[totoum]

Originally Posted by creb

Well, for those of us who thought Akira was one of the most overrated anime ever, we will watch this Hollywood adventure in bringing it to live action with a mixture of glee and horror. Sort of like seeing how Hollywood can make it even worse.

Except they're adapting the manga into 2 movies from what I've heard, not the anime,that's a pretty big difference

As for the director,not impressed,I hope he proves me wrong.

[bhl88]

From a M rated anime to PG-13 movie.

[AbZeroNow]

Originally Posted by totoum

Except they're adapting the manga into 2 movies from what I've heard, not the anime,that's a pretty big difference

As for the director,not impressed,I hope he proves me wrong.

ANN seems to say they're adapting from the manga, and there is another link that says that they are looking at Gary Oldman for the Colonel(good choice) and Helena Bonham-Carter for Lady Miyako(could be a good choice)

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...ed-akira-roles

Originally Posted by bhl88

From a M rated anime to PG-13 movie.

It seems they are adapting the manga but yes, in all likelihood, they'll go for the PG-13 rating for the U.S(and the equivalent in the U.K).

I'm not sure if toning down the violence will make it a better film or just be another example of Hollywood watering the original work down.

[Ichuki]

I have a weird dreaded feeling it is going to turn out bad as DB Evolution