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Live Action Akira Nuked? While I Have Your Attention, Manga News You Should Know About
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Column by Scott Green
Bloody Disgusting is reporting that the Akira live action movie that was in development from Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way and Warner Bros. Pictures is "dead as a doornail." According to the horror site, director Ruairi Robinson left the now cancelled project. The adaptation was to have been a two part apocalyptic action, set in the Japanese, funded rebuilt city of "New Manhattan." Joseph Gordon-Levitt was supposedly on tap to play biker delinquent turned psychic powerhouse Tetsuo.
Reportedly, when the Akira project was being developed, it was targeted for summer 2009.
The landmark 1988, Katsuhiro Otomo directed anime version of Akira is now available in North America on Blu-ray through Bandai Entertainment.
Amazon listings suggest that Japanese manga publisher Kodansha will be entering the North American market with an October 13th re-release of the Akira manga.
While I Have Your Attention...
Akira blah blah blah... I love the anime and original manga... the live action adaption might have been brilliant, but probably would have been just another prefab summer blockbuster.
This morning saw some breaking news on the manga front that really ought to pique the interest of AICNer's is....
Ryan Sands and Evan Hayden, the guys from the Same Hat! blog (featuring horror, gag & erotic-grotesque nonsense) who previously localized Tokyo Zombie, will be preparing Last Gaps's North American release of Suehiro Maruo's "The Strange Tale of Panorama Island."
The publication is planned for Spring 2010, and will be only Suehiro Maruo's third book released in English (after Creation Books' "Ultra-Gash Inferno" and Blast Books' "Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show").
From Same Hat's description
Panorama is an adaptation of a novella by Japanese detective fiction godfather, Edogawa Rampo. The story takes place at the end of the Taisho era, and follows an unsuccessful science fiction author with an uncanny resemblance to a former classmate/son of a rich industrialist family. When the industrialist's son dies, the author fakes his own death, digs up and hides the other man's body, then washes himself up starving on a beach in a town where the dead man's family lives. After some more intrigue and scheming, he proceeds to take redirect all of their money to build a mysterious pleasure palace island, and live like a sensual weirdo king. Crazy and amazing stuff!
A seminal figure in Japanese horror and mystery, Edogawa Rampo is probably best known to anime fans as half of the namesake of Detective Conan's hero Edogawa Conan, and known to horror/mondo film fans as the inspiration for the likes of infamously banned Horror of the Malformed Men.
Suehiro Maruo is a noted manga artist from the ero-guro tradition whose graphic work ofteb refers back to ukiyo-e print.
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I just can't see Hollywood ever doing justice with a live action Akira movie. Maybe a Cowboy Bebop movie... it could happen. And it will star Keanu. And we will die a little inside.
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This had bad idea written all over it. I am glad there is some empty suit realized how terrible this would be. That guy deserved a raise and head of WB.
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not the least bit disappointed in this Akira news.
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Thanks to LAND OF THE LOST, you can count on this being only the beginning of a wave of cancelled projects like this one - anything to do with live-action versions of fantasy/sci-fi properties or even just fantasy/sci-fi at all - the Ameican people have spoken. They want rude, crude, crass comedy and sex jokes. They want romcoms. They want BLAND!
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Due to lack of Decepticon testicles.
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From a pure animation POV, there is stuff in there that makes you say "How the eff did they do that?" Beyond that, the story was kinda meh. IMHO, a live-action would turn out to look like a squishy version of a Michael Bay film.
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OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
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...I've never seen the anime version of Akira. Granted, I've read the entire manga series, which is probably the most goddamn amazing manga I've ever read in my life (closely followed by Blade of the Immortal, and further followed by other stuff; I'm having a hard time of thinking of anything that comes close to Akira's caliber). I should probably get around to watching Akira someday soon.
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...to the manga. I was really looking forward to seeing a movie of it, though. Leo seemed to be moving the show in the Manga's direction, hence the two-parter (think division after Akira's explosion and the Great Tokyo Empire). I hope somebody continues with it, the departure of a low level director shouldn't kill this project.
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Fuck a live action AKIRA KEANU BEBOP should be next to go.
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they might have fucked it up right and good with Will Smith Screaming
"awwww hell naw Kaneda, you did not just shoot that fleashy metal shit at me" -
Ruairi Robinson, who hasn't directed one feature, was to direct a project as huge as Akira and then he 'left'? Maybe he got a glimpse of the future and saw the angry mob carrying pitchforks and torches marching towards his home.
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Why on earth would you try to do this story as a live action movie? Unless you were doing it like Sin City -- but on a much more massive scale -- there's really no point.Hell, let Square Enix do the mangas in the FF7: AC style. That would be just fantastic.
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...of anime for a lot of American fans...is it because it was one of the first real works to catch on here back in the early nineties?
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Because a lot of young boys saw it and where like "HEY COOL!"
honestly nausicaa in my mind is a landmark, not Akira. -
what in the fuck is that shit all about? Man, the japs are the perviest little bastards.
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I was thinking the other day how Akira might be a metaphor for the oncoming technological singularity, if you believe in that kinda thing. It's weird how uncomfortable the Japanese seem to be with their own technological advancement. The fear of losing our humanity through technology seems to be a pretty common theme in a lot of stuff out of Japan.
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right along with this movie.
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http://tinyurl.com/Danasnyder
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and....Paul Blart Mall Cop had the highest selling DVD 2 weeks in a row.
and....Devastator has testicles -
And I thought there was no way this could end well!
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After he does Alita Battle Angel.
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Jun 15, 2009 10:55:05 AM CDT
So now it's just "Monster", "Death Note" and "Ninja Scroll" in d
by anna valerious
This is pretty good, as I don't think "Akira" would've worked out.
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but thats not saying much is it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phhliR4SvOc -
Was excited about them ripping anything semi-interesting out and replacing it with explosions, Hollywood morals & Nicholas Cage! At least we still have Dragonball.
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Jun 15, 2009 11:15:03 AM CDT
Probably would have ended up loooking like ULTRAVIOLET
by joker gordon levitt
I always hoped for 5th Element + The Shining, directed by Alex Proyas or David Fincher. At least Joseph Gordon Levitt is free to play the Joker now..
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For saving AKIRA.
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I dont know if I'm happy or sad....
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Jun 15, 2009 11:30:21 AM CDT
Screw a live-action movie. Start selling Kaneda's bike!!!
by royston lodge
I don't need to see a live-action AKIRA movie, but damn I'd love to own Kaneda's bike. I think they'd sell a shit load if licensed the design to some custom bike manufacturer, especially if an electric motor is an option.
Fuckin-A. -
A Japanese company makes one that comes close, but isn't QUITE there:
www.neo-fukuoka.com -
I can appreciate those that put Akira on a pedestal as a big deal in terms of animation but i always thought the actual film was a nonsense.
An anime kid with 'shouting mouth' syndrome, things cracking apart, lightning, noise... and that was about it, wasn't it? -
The first 1/3 of Akira is brilliant. The middle third is "I would ask what they were smoking, only I'm too bored to ask." The final 1/3 is about equal with some of the worst stuff I've ever seen. So, I'm kinda happy a live action was cancelled.
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I'm glad people on here can still appreciate something and not actually like it personally.
Akira was great in my eyes but it isn't perfect - it was a culturally significant landmark for the genre in so many ways though and that is undeniable.
Everyone has different tastes but honestly the people who just say 'Meh Akira' and not see the bigger picture are the same people who say 'meh' to anything popular just to sound superior. If it is 'meh' kids say these days, probably fashion has dictated that they now say 'meh' to people who say 'meh'. -
does that mean all the smaller remakes will die too? Like when you kill the lead vampire? *hopes*
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...at its best, what could it have been? Ultimately, probably just a recreation of something that was already amazing, without adding anything to it. I think Akira was already so well-realized that there's nothing to be gained by any adaptation. maybe that's the conclusion they came to: this would take an enormous amount of work, and for what? An imitation of something that is already brilliant in every way a new film could be.
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I hope you're right but not in the way you fear.The thing about the new LOTL is that it *is* a junkpile of "rude, crude, crass comedy and sex jokes". As The Hangover and other recent examples show, the American public does want such junk, but maybe not mixed in with their beloved and non-crass fantasy properties.What I hope the massive LOTR tanking does is scare Hollywood away from trying to mash together established properties with the 18-to-35-male-targeted juvenile, crass humor. It fails pretty consistently, and maybe this will signal a trend where those two genres are done separately, where they can make more money. But to acknowledge your larger point, yes, ssadly, my fellow Americans have an enormous appetite for junk, and I fear for how they'll drag down the rest of the world with them.
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Now cancel Evangelion ASAP!!!
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I respect DiCaprio for wanting to make this, but from the short film I saw that the director made it didn't seem like he could make it work. It was just some future soldier or something that kept killing himself or something. I also didn't understand how a full japanese story would translate to an american audience. Sounds like Gordon-Levitt was supposed to be in it but if its tokyo how do they mesh americans into the mix. Oh Well, really they've been trying to make this for years. I remember stephen norrington of Blade fame being attached before, but that fell through too. Another botched attempt.
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Jun 15, 2009 12:38:07 PM CDT
Friedman Suing Fox For Wrongful Termination, Scientology Conspir
by trannyformers_apologist
New York Daily News say Friedman was fired not because he encouraged people to run out and illegally download one of his employers' own movies, while that same employer at the same time chided other writers for doing the same. Instead they say he was fired as part of some big conspiracy spearheaded by Scientology. No I am not joking.
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As UP and THE HANGOVER make bank and LOTL fades into the red, maybe the town will understand the need for original scripts. I doubt it, but one can hope...
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I say HELL NO to a live action Akira. That's like trying to remake Citizen Kane. I like DiCaprio but it was a very bad idea.
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Truth.
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TRUTH again.
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Friedman’s attorney Martin Garbus is further claiming that the leak of Wolverine onto the internet 30 days early, the leak which Friedman used for his illegal downloading, was actually all the fault of Rupert Murdoch to begin with. “Apparently, someone made another copy for themselves,” he says. That’s right, they’re claiming Rupert Murdoch pirated his company’s movie.
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AKIRA is one of the very few Japanese animated films made after the 1960s where the lip movements were animated to match the already-recorded dialogue. Most Japanese animation just approximates the dialogue when animating, and the voice actors come in later to match the lip flaps. Unless someone's dunderheaded enough to waste time watching the English dubbed version of AKIRA, the lip sync should be spot-on.
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While I LOVE Akira, Animation's issues with it are kinda why I wouldn't want another Movie. Two parts would have helped, but the reason the first one is a jumbled mess is that it tried to cram six tomes of story into 2 hours and change. I don't think even four hours would fix that. It's a massive series and will only really work as a massive series. Before even touching on some of the painfully moronic adaptation moves (Neo Manhattan? Did they not learn from Godzilla?) this is always going to be the problem. As for the original, I think tomdolan04 captured my sentiments pretty well. It was a landmark experience, one that is difficult for a later generation expose to TONs of Anime are likely to get that initial punch from the way people that first saw it, or that saw it before any other Anime but 90s Saturday morning cartoons. I'd almost go to far as to say its like the wave of 2001 hate that cropped up a few years ago from people that thought it was an overrated "art film" (god that term has become so pejorative in the US/interwebs). The only difference is that while 2001 suffers from people not understanding what the film is, from people seeing it who don't get non-Hollywood film (or in some cases have even heard of it proper) like that made by Antonioni or Bergman or Buñuel, Akira really is a crammed together mess. But mess or not I do love it. It feels like its been televised and edited for time, but it still does make sense, and after the brilliance of that opening (with one of my all time favorite scores) it could pretty much utter shit from there on in, because that's where the film leaves its mark. People were talking about summer movies and how they changed them, well, hunting down in the late 90s, watching that scene with bikes one summer day... that was one of those cinematic moments for me. That changed things. It changed what animation could be for me. Trying to do that scene again in live action would miss the point.
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This article wasn't quite as interesting as I thought it would be. No fault of the author's though! Carry on.
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Like A Terminator with an anchor tied to it's arse!
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. . . does anyone really believe that we live in an alternate universe where executives, producers, writers, and directors actually have the talent and the nerve to actually pull it off? No. No we don't.
In the real world, it would have sucked.
But, theoretically, to take the anime and turn it into a live-action film that's accessible to the north american audience wouldn't be TOO difficult.
1) Fix the pacing. The plot and the locations of the anime jump around really haphazardly, requiring multiple viewing to really "get" what's going on. In theory, it shouldn't be too hard to smooth out the storytelling so it's a little easier to follow.
2) Human emotion. In the anime, the emotions that the characters are dealing with don't always get portrayed successfully, because at the end of the day it's Anime and you can only portray so much when you don't use real actors. The uncanny valley, and all that.
3) More science. Less supernatural. Eliminate Akira's ghost. It's really not necessary to drive the story along.
In my mind, I see the opening sequence of a well-made, live-action americanized version. Shot of Manhattan at night from the sky. Subtitle on the screen, "Manhattan: Present Day". Suddently, a nuclear explosion slowly expands from Times Square. Screen goes black. Big red AKIRA logo displays on screen with cool polyphonic Japanese music.
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Not a huge Manga/Anime fan, but I do love me some Akira (just picked up the blu-ray last week). There's no way this couldn't have been horrible.
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Too bad, another project in the shitta!
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A part of me was so afraid they'd fuck this up, yet a part of me was dying to see it done... But fear not gentlemen... Someday I will make live action Akira! And the IMAX 3D version will fuck your eyeballs full of flying buildings and all that other crazy shit that was in the manga! And it'll be 3 films 2 volumes each... and it'll be set in Japan with a cast of asian looking people who look Japanese and speak english. Heck I'll do it right now, just help me raise 1 billion dollars...
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LA Akira has been floating around for years. I doubt this will kill it completely. I say get the dude that made Dark City to do it. He tapped the manga for his ending anyway.
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once you get over the animation the movie is fuckin boring as hell.
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And I'm so sick of every fucking Hollywood movie insisting on New York City being the backdrop of films of this nature
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I think so! Great news!
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This might be the best news of the year!The manga gods were listening :)
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Dont knock it until you've tried it
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ARE SAFE FROM THIS LIVE ACTION ATROCITY, ANIME FOR LIFE
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I my joy over the the "Akira" cancellation, I forgot that Spielberg's version of "Ghost in the Shell" needs to be killed off also! FUCK!
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Some days this site completely lives up to its stereotype.
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Why do I get the distinct feeling that you are a real life version of bill murray's character out of scrooged?
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Ruairi Robinson is a cocky shit.
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Give me one good reason why it couldn't have been set in Japan. I'm glad it's dead.
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I still have the entire run of Epic Comics original publication of Akira, which started in 1988. I started collecting it when I was thirteen and it was one of the first comics I really got into. These days, I prefer to read manga in its unflopped format but Epic Comics did a bang up job with their translation. They hired Steve Oliff to colorize the entire 3,000 page epic. He did an amazing job. We really did get the superior version of the work.
It's a shame that Japanese readers will never get to experience it in color. Oliff was hand picked by Katsuhiro Otomo who approved of the colorization. It really adds a lot to bringing the comic to life. The art still looks fantastic in black and white but this was not a cheap colorization.
I love the anime but calling yourself an Akira fan and not having read the manga is like being a Harry Potter fan who hasn't read the books. Unfortunately you can only get the colorized version in back issues, which I still have :-P. As for the Hollywood movie, they probably would have done something stupid like tried to make Tetsuo the good guy or give Kaneda powers. I still want that red motorcycle! -
= dumb version of Akira = waste of all of our time.
BUT if sometime in the future a writer/director/producer team with a real vision made a live action Akira based from the manga... it could possibly be the best thing ever put on film. -
Instead of live action, it might be better to re-tell the source manga in another animation format. Maybe have the wizards over at Pixar take on a completely different genre and see what they come up with. I think they're one of the few teams that are capable of doing Akira justice.
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"love the anime and original manga... the live action adaption might have been brilliant, but probably would have been just another prefab summer blockbuster."
Oi! Leave the opinions of the bloody obvious for us talkbackers please. Most of us got nothing else. -
Jun 15, 2009 8:30:14 PM CDT
Wasn't the Akira anime movie actually 4 different stories
by amy chasing
put together? Hence the weird pacing and narrative. I think the first and last stories were connected, but the middle two were departures from them. Sorry, can't remember, been a while since I seen it with a friend who was telling me the entire history of Akira in detail as the movie was playing.
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...probably "Macross: Do You Remember Love". And it will probably never be legitimately released in the USA until Carl Macek croaks.
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Jun 15, 2009 9:42:40 PM CDT
Some people consider Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal the best
by amy chasing
anime ever. I'd have to see it again myself but am currently watching Shigurui.
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"Not another one of those damn
Graphic Novel movie pictures", is what the execs were heard to say.
The anime was good for it's time, but definitely needed to be made as a trilogy. I find it hard to watch now(and I saw it in the theatres, as a teen; so I've got some fond-arse memories, hell yeah! Wooh!!). But if they made it into a high-end TV series, 39 or 52 episodes, that'd be enough for me. Maybe DiCaprio should think about doing that with his money/clout, so A)It's still set in Japan and b)You can still have your fugful American dub, and pretend that 'Americans are Akira'! hehe... -
Thank god it's dead. Why would they want to americanize it? Not every thing has to take place in fucking New York!
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I know it's been said here before...but couldnt resist....anyways...yeah..Akira movie....get the bike and the laser cannon right and I am there...simple as that.
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Remember the wizards who said "Hey, let's make a CGI 'Final Fantasy' movie in which there is no fantasy, and base it on a video game by removing all action, and do this all off a role-playing game and remove all characterization?" "That sound great - but you know what would be even better? Giving them all 'dead eye' so they all look like the living dead." "ROCK!"
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Jun 15, 2009 11:01:11 PM CDT
I hope this means Keanu Bebop is getting canned as well
by toilet_terror
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Woke up at the end which was pretty. Music was good too. Although I think the thing I'll remember most about it was the Thriller DVD-extra. Somehow the dead-eye made it all the more effective.
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...had no idea that such a genre existed. How people get off on dead-eyed uncanny valley chicks I'll never know. Oh well, different strokes (pun intended).
Somebody even made a Final Fantasy one. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be better than the real Final Fantasy movie. -
...the manga/anime that did NOT contain Japanese settings and characters, in the hopes Hollywood would adapt THOSE. Maybe I should dig it up and post it here since I know some H'wood hacks read this site.
Offhand, an obvious choice would be the currently popular Fullmetal Alchemist. Lead character is a blonde-haired caucasian kid. Hardly any non-white characters, so Hollywood won't even have to whitewash it. -
The day Hollywood tries to make Le Chevalier d'Eon or Baccano! gimme a call. :)
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Or even 'Fist of the Blue Sky'?
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I was actually interested in seeing how this would turn out, but "Neo-Manhattan" was definitely a bad idea
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I'm glad Gary Whitta doesn't have a chance to ruin it with his douchebaggery.
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Great animation and definitely a landmark film. But I never liked the story that much.Best animated film ever is and always will be GHOST IN THE SHELL (of course).
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of Haruhi Suzumiya must be adapted to live action for big screen. Preferably R rated...with extra girl on girl scenes of course.
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is the greatest Movie, Novel and Soundtrack of all time,
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esecially compared to GITS,FOTNS and Macross DYRL. I can think of a few anime movies past and present that I feel deserving of praise more than Akira. Akira probably hooked many westerners into anime, but it should not be the "standard" when it comes to the it factor of anime. Just sayin.
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animes like, Macross, Evangelion, Gundam and all that other shite is better than AKIRA is either 12 or a fuckin mong and GitS was good but Innocence was better
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I think Princess Mononoke is the best anime movie I've seen. I love GITS but can understand some people's reaction at the monologue nature of the dialogue (especially the English dub). I know people who love Akira as much as others love My Neighbor Totoro. Personally I think perhaps Tokyo Godfathers may be the most accessible anime film I can think of, but damn The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is beautifully clever.
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Can be 'westernized' and work well or perhaps even be better(?)... Perfect Blue, Black Lagoon, Paradise Kiss, Macross, Gundam, Escaflowne, Cowboy Bebop... basically any anime that isn't centered in Japan itself but some fantasy like world whose aesthetic doesn't borrow too much from Japanese culture or where the Japanese cultural parts were irrelevant or can be safely ignored without affecting anything important... Akira wasn't one of those if you're going by the manga, neither is Ghost in the Shell but perhaps they might get away with a sort of side story and new characters based in the world of GITS only in America? I really think Bebop can work out amazingly well for a Hollywood adaptation, it'll have virtually no problems crossing over and finding mainstream appeal.. it's just that there's always the worry that you can give Hollywood the most simple safe thing to work with and they'll still place it in the hands of some idiots that will unbelievably go out of their way to fuck it all up...
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It is not set in Japan. Why should a remake set in Japan? There were plenty of problems with the Godzilla movie, but Manhattan was never one of them. Also, I don't get this "only losers watch Animes dubbed, original is the way too go" mentality. Guess what a lot of us folks are not fluent in japanese. the subtitles only distract from the visuals (and I guess the visuals are the point) and you can never have the full picture 'cos subtitles always truncate the text.
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They already did a live action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop. It was called "Firefly"
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anime set in Japan then, like Magnificent Seven, they should change the title to distance the adaptation from the original like they're distancing the location.
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following this logic an AKIRA remake set in Manhattan is ok if they change the name and the title. WALTER comng soon
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when i read that is was an adaptation of the manga and not the anime movie,but New Manhattan? not sticking to the manga after all then eh? well just fuck it all,im happy as hell its dead for the moment at least.
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The complexity and technical excellence in the animation of Akira should stand on it's own for anybody with even a modicum of knowledge about 2D animation. As for the story, I think it's hard to fully understand the impact Akira had on the psyche of a whole generation. I once had a conversation in Tokyo w/ a bunch of 30-something Japanese guys and learned a lot about the socio-political subtext of the story. It's like us with Star Wars except with an actual meaningful message behind it... that's how these dudes viewed Akira.
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We got Fist of the North Star. We got caucasians named Kenshiro and Ryuken the last time they tried that.
And Fist of the Blue Sky takes place in 1930s Shanghai. Hollywood would change Shanghai to 2010 New York City. -
I always wanted chewing gum that could make you breathe underwater.
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Akira was ok, but a live action sounds like DB: EVo
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not be called Akira. They can say it's "based on Akira", but it's not Akira and shouldn't be advertised as such.
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Jun 16, 2009 11:11:28 PM CDT
FlickaPoo I've always thought Akira was popoular because...
by murdermostfowl
It was the first non "mecha" anime that looked "cool" and approachavle to American Audiences. The king of Anime will always be Macross to me, but anyone other than geeks won't watch it. Akira somehow made it outside of that.
Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell seems to have usurped akira at the top of "approachable" anime. My favorite crazy anime is still FLCL and the tragically underappreciated "Paranoia Agent" -
That's not what I was talking about. What I meant was doing Akira in the same CGI graphical style of Final Fantasy: Advent Children.A live-action Final Fantasy? No fucking thanks.
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But honestly the 2D animation is Akira kicks too much ass and still hold up as one of the most spectacularly animated films today! Akira doesn't need 3D unless it's some 2D/3D hybrid that meshes well together... CG works best for proerties with off the scale action that is nowhere near realistic. Advent Children proves it beautifully! CG should be used where live action is virtually impossible to utilize unless they're willing to put the budget and time on photorealism, whcih might come off awkward anyway, it's easier to buy an anime looking character doing crazy shit than a photoreal human... Frankly Square Enix should make a Devil May Cry film, because Capcom has scared me with their subpar Resident Evil Degeneration. Oddly the animation quality in their videogame cutscenes are better... but Degeneration was clearly mo capped shit. If Akira is ever remade t follow the manga, it should be 2D characters with more impressive 2D/3D backgrounds and effects. Innocence GITS2 and Steamboy were awesome! And there's other cool TV serie and films that make 2D and 3D work extraordinarily well!
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its the only thing left to do in cinema awesome film
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There's been live action adaptations of other Toshio Maeda work (La Blue Girl)
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yea seen that La Blue Girl live action think I was watching it "one handed" though so can't remember much. Imagine a decent budgeted live action UROTSUKIDOJI though, man that would be fuckin nuts giant penis' ripping through cities, rape and pillage by horrific demons, madness ruling the world, and at the center a tender love story between a nerd and a cheerleader aaaa fuck Cthullu give me the Chojin
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They've made impressive technological advances with CG (eg: Gollum, Benjamin Button) and it's clear that with the right creative team (ie Pixar) CG can be used to tell great, mature feature length stories (like the first half of Wall-e).
They would/would've had a much tougher time creating a _good_ live action Akira then a CG version. As an audience, we tend to be much more forgiving and much more accepting of stories that "break reality" when they're in the animated/CG format vs when they're in live action. Not to say that it can't be done LA, but it gets much harder to "fool" us into fullly accepting the reality they create. And good entertainment is mostly about how deeply the audience sinks into whatever story is being told. Bad writing, bad acting as well as the inability to sell the story/reality all contribute to taking us out of the moment and back into our own reality.
"Breaking reality" includes stuff like defying the laws of science/nature, creating believable other-worldly creatures and phenomena, etc. When we see something in LA, the tendency is to associate what we see in a LA movie with our own reality. So we'll readily notice fake fur on a creature or bad special effects in an action scene done in LA, or an actor obviously playing against a green screen etc but it won't take much for us to accept a talking animal or a 40 meter tall robot moving like a lightweight boxer if it's told in the medium of animation or CG.
The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced CG is the best medium to tell a better Akira story then either the anime or manga. CG will allow for all the small details (and then some) of the anime while enabling far greater uses of light, camera/lens, color, effects and fluid movement etc of CG. Style wise, I'd probably go more along the lines of something like Advent Children rather than something hyper real or (on the other side of the spectrum) something obviously anime inspitred like the anime/CG blend of Appleseed.
It'd be best if they keep a Japanese art design team (who do a far better job at interpreting technology) with an American director, American CG team and American writer for the screenplay. For whatever reason, the Japanese seem to have a difficult time writing entertaining feature length animated movies... I'd also stick closely to the manga and split it into 2 or 3 movies. I'd really like to see how Pixar would tackle this.
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