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Another Akira Casting Rumor Emerges From the Frozen Locker
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Column by Scott Green
Following the recent Zac Efron chatter, Bloody Disgusting has picked up a new bit of casting talk concerning the Hughes directed live action Akira. Morgan Freeman may be the face of the military in the broken society of Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira, Colonel Shikishima. (Bit trivia, Akira's biker delinquent protagonist Shotaro Kaneda shares a name with the boy detective who controls heroic giant robot forerunner, Tetsuijin 28 aka Gigantor, and Akira's Colonel shares a name with that boy's scientist confidant, Professor Shikishima - which suggests something about Akira's relationship to the early tradition of a giant robot as a symbol of a powerful, industrial future.)
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That Is all
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Woo-hoo. Efron in an Anime movie? Giveth a break to me. How about a japanese actor?
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Oh well...I tried. And when are they going to make a movie out of 'The Fourth World' (wink)
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That is all
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Thankfully for him I'm sure someone will wise up on this shit. If Norrington isn't making it then no one should let alone two dipshit losers from the second tier of the 90's race card beneficiaries.
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With these casting rumors it's more likely to be called Alex or something. Seems like this film won't be set in Japan. Neo-New York then? Ha!
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Morgan Freeman can't make miracles happen.
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А продолжение следует? <a href="http://494911.ru/"></a>
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Nov. 7, 2010, 6:07 p.m. CST
Is Morgan Freeman this generations James Earl Jones?
by Hey_Kobe_Tell_Me_How_My_Ass_Tastes
as in he is the way over used goto guy when it comes to casting any authority figure? couldnt swing a dead cat in late 80's early 90's without seeing JEJ now same with the granddaughter lover
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Revenge of the bushy eyebrows
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leak some topless Christina Hendricks pictures online? <br></br> <br></br> The fearful symmetry of that would be mind blowing... <br></br><br></br> Let's not call it Akira anymore, let's call it Kenny fucking Powers or Timmy or Brad... or George.?
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Nov. 7, 2010, 6:15 p.m. CST
"anime sucks!" - some guy who named himself after red bull
by RedHorseVector
go slam another energy drink while you jerk off to ufc fights on youtube, faggot.
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One in January t'other in the fall. Had to move Ass Creek Mississippi to get away from them. <br></br><br></br> True Story
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Nov. 7, 2010, 6:32 p.m. CST
got a little 'red' civil war going on
by Hey_Kobe_Tell_Me_How_My_Ass_Tastes
funny
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Go home, you racist schmuck.<p> ▲<br> ▲ ▲
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brett, or chad, or john etc as I heard they called it Akira as that is a very common name in Japan.
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Didn't get it huh? <br></br><br></br>S'OK. Puppy, some things will inevitably go over your head you reactionary twat.
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Why take an anime and dumb down for white trash tea party stupid america? LEAVE. ANIME. THE FUCK. ALONE.
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...just no white mall rats please. This is the 21st Century - the audience wants to see diversity, and not another metrosexual caucasian on screen. We're bored Hollywood - BORED!
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Nov. 7, 2010, 6:52 p.m. CST
the original akira anime movie was boring
by Hey_Kobe_Tell_Me_How_My_Ass_Tastes
very disappointing
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According to THR, Ridley plans on only making the first film set before Alien, the second film is supposed to be set 10 years after Alien and 47 years before Aliens.<P>Looks like Ridley will finally get to make Alien 2 after all these years, it just better not fuck up anything Cameron set up
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I hope that Alien rumor is true. Ideally Ridley should just do the second movie and forget the prequel altogether. Who wants to see a prequel?
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That's news to me. They've already failed to create a memorable or convincing future in THE BOOK OF ELI. So I'm not too optimistic here. I don't even think a live-action AKIRA is such a bad idea. But I would hope that even if they wanted to set it in America they'd set it in some Japanese-American motorcycle racing community or something. All that "Kaneeeedaaaaaaaaa!" and "Tetsuuuoooooooooo!" is gonna sound stupid if it's Zac Efron being yelled at. Get Tadanobu Asano in that shit and Bob's your Uncle.
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It was visually stunning, the animation fantastic (and being preCGI, and preDisney-2nd-Golden-Age, it was the best annimation seen in a looooong time). But the plot and concepts werent so fantastic that they need to be repeated in a live action form, regardless of the setting or ethnic background of the cast. Can't say I'm too excited about this one.
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Nov. 7, 2010, 7:39 p.m. CST
I hate where this is going... Hughes Brothers I'm alright with
by andrew coleman
I actually think their style is right here, sorry guy from Wyoming who hates blacks but sorry you have to fuck your sister everyday, but that's no excuse to be racist. Anyway they are making this clearly too American which is the wrong way to do it.
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This movie set the bar for all the anime that followed, it was a revolutionary use of the medium. I can't see a live action version working. I mean how do you do killer teddy bears? I don't have a lot of faith here. I smell speed racer syndrome here, it won't translate to live action....
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Wouldn't the Scott directed ALIEN sequel still be a prequel... to ALIENS?
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It should be someone like that badass Army commander from 28 Weeks Later.
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made by the "two dipshit losers from the second tier of the 90's race card beneficiaries". Oldman was tearing it up- I want to see the rest of that one
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it with celebrity? Does it turn you insane or do they just make a point of hiring freaks and scumbags? What a picture of integrity that guy is. He's fucking God for crying out loud. The heart wants? Sorry pal but the dick wants.
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Is Williams still acting, or is he just a full-time producer now?<p> Reddick would be pretty awesome as The Colonel.
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The casting is retarded. P.S. racist sucks.
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How do you do Killer Teddy Bears? Have you not seen Muse's music video for Uprising? I don't see the point in calling this Akira if you're just going to Americanized it. That takes away what makes it Akira to begin with. I really enjoy the original anime despite its muddled narrative.
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I skipped Speed Racer, I think I made the right choice based on the clips I saw.<BR><BR> Akira is visually fascinating but a really weird flick. I really don't see mainstream American audiences catching onto it.<BR><BR> I am okay with the idea of casting Zac Efron to the film, I just hope they don't make another crapfest like, let's say, Dungeons & Dragons was.<BR><BR>
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Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Daniel Dae Kim,michelle yeoh, Devon Aoki,Chiaki Kuriyama. Look at that a full Asian cast that can speak English and act.
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I don't know why it's so bad to retain that and still have a bunch of westerners in other roles.
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If they touch it, they will die.
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Exactly what I was thinking re Ken Wantanbe. That would be inspired casting.
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Nov. 7, 2010, 10:06 p.m. CST
This is turning into the live action Fist of the North Star
by CodeName
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this is gonna work with Effron innit. Tetsuo and Akira were tough, Zach-notsomuch...
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...the live action Fist of the North Star. Looks like our work here is done.
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h taken off his name now
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It was God Awful but not as bad as Dragon Ball.
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The manga was actually much better. The anime film only contains about the first half of the manga. You could easily split it up into 3 great films.
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Супер!!! <a href="http://494911.ru/"></a>
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Its useless to hope for this to b set in Japan with a Japanese cast. But i hope Holywood realises the post nuclear Japan is a character in itself. But id imagine it cud work in a dystopian Bladerunner-esque Future, roving disenfranchised biker teens wud fit right in.. I think adapting this anime is a bad idea..but if done right, it cud work..
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Kaneda is kinda of a pretty boy to begin with..with a badasa bike..the kind Tetsuo *ahem*JosephGordonLevitt wud be jealous of..
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And there are lots of great things, but one of the greatest is that they recorded the voice actors first and then lipsynced the whole movie. I guess it doesn't make as much difference if you don't speak Japanese, but that point alone sets it miles ahead of pretty much everything else ever.<p> Best cell animation you will ever see. Huge concepts and ideas thrown around with almost zero audience-pandering exposition. If you haven't watched much anime it can be hard to see just how incredible it really is, compared to most of the rest of the stuff out there, especially all the shit from the last 10+ years... The more you learn about anime, the more you understand the medium, the better and better Akira gets.<p>Here's a live action example, as it probably suits most people on this site better. You know those really cool shots that make you think "how did they film that?," things like the non-cut shots at the start of Snakeyes or the camera spinning around the outside of the driving car in TC's War of the Worlds. Those are shots that the average movie goer is just going to see, and take for granted, and not realize what went into them or what makes then unique. Akira is packed with the anime equivilant of material just like that. You should be able to more than ejoy it without all that stuff, but you need the proper frame of reference to really understand why it is simply the best example of anime ever.
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right on brother. the only anime movie that comes close to akira in terms of epicness and ambition is Wings of Honneamise (released in '86). akira is slightly better as an overall movie, but Wings was just as important and really paved the way for big budget anime features. you wouldnt see all the amazing miyazake flicks without movies like wings and akira that really pushed the envelope in terms of what can be achieved with animated feature films.
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They got pretty boy Zac, get his hot (naked on the internet) real life "High School Musical" girlfriend (they can add a gratuitous PG13 make out scene for her), some of the cast from "ICarly", dancers from "Hellcats" and the "Glee" singers. Add any interchangable black rapper/"actor" as jive taking gang banging comic relief to appease the Hughes Bros demographic...and a couple of token martial arts equipped asians as waiters in a chinese restaurant shootout/dance scene so they can defend that the movie ISN'T racist/anti-asian....Teen dream all singing all dancing musical version (hire Kenny Ortega to choreograph the dancing gunfights and singing motorcycle chases) of "Akira" by way of "Tokyo Drift" and the production design of "Blade Runner, but will retitle it "Clyde" so it won't spook the "I only see movies with white people" TeaBagger states (aka the "midwest" aka the Inbred Hillbilly White Trash Racists zone between the coasts). The AnimeFanboys will cry hard(boohoo!), the Hollywood NonWhite Actor's Guild (all 115 of them) will rail against all the "whilewash casting" (Wahhhhh!) but the MILLIONS of teenybopper Justin Bieber fans (in a surprise "twist ending" M Night worthy casting move, Bieber can BE Akira/Clyde!) will wet themselves and throw their training bras at the screen in pre-adolecent orgasmic delirium. 14 year old girls will see it 20 times ala "Titanic". Shoot it on cheap 2d "grainydefshakycam"video ala "Cloverfield"/"Paranormal Acivity", slap on a cheap ass, retina bleeding "Clash of the Airbender" 3D conversion - Boom! - an Avatar crushing $800 million gross domestic...there are more comic books that didn't make it into the original anime movie? TRILOGY!!!!!
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I wonder if they'll actually pronounce it correctly.
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Nov. 8, 2010, 2:54 a.m. CST
Morgan Freeman every fucking time, enough already!
by DioxholsterOperationsOutpost
if you want an awesome black actor there are many out there!
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Seriously.
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хорошая статья, как и все предыдущие. Подписалась и ожидаю вашего творчества.<a href="http://494911.ru/"></a>
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I love Freeman, he's an awesome actor, but he's too old for Shikishima and doesn't look anything like him. Hollywood really does know how to utterly fuck the source material to anything remotely good they buy in.
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Worse than Marvel casting Sam Jackson as Nick Fury, when he should've been an elderly Caucasian bad-ass.
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Give him a moustache...would be perfect for the part.
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If its not racism. Then where are the Asian acting leads in this film ?
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...I like the bloke but these films need pace, and you can't have that with a guy in a zimmer frame.
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Nov. 8, 2010, 5:53 a.m. CST
THEY BETTER CAST JAMES HONG from Big Trouble-Little China !
by JonChambers
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He'd better play a better military dude in this film than he did in the awful Dreamcatcher.
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Will the live action version also have a 30 minute section of Tetsuo and Kaneda yelling each others' names while indecipherable crap explodes - or something - for no apparent reason?
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Black people in anime are usually seen in military roles, as that is when some came during US occupation in the '40s.
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Nov. 8, 2010, 8:23 a.m. CST
Didn't they learn anything from Dragonball Evolution?
by Tikidonkeypunch
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Поделюсь с друзьями, пусть присоеденяются.<a href="http://494911.ru/"></a>
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just cast him in any movie from now until eternity, I loved his Frank D'Amico (spl?) from Kick-Ass so much, everytime he cursed it was a freaqin work of art.
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new movie is not called Akira , it's called 'Tyrone'.
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or Jesse the Body. Do it,
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You Faggot, hahahh!!!
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I hope your house burns down while you're in it giving your grandpa a blowjob...
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Seriously fuck this piece of shit!!!
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It was a stupid anime movie. Japanese Anime is nonsensical and embarrassing.
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Get used to the fact that it wont be set in japan and get used to the fact that it wont have a complete asian cast if at all. Even though there are plenty of great japenese actors some of which speak brilliant english there is still not that many to fill out the cast and if it was subtitled it wont make that much money at the western box office and the budget for this will be huge to make this film right and will need to make money. There are going to be a few changes to the story to compensate for this and you hater bitches are going to have to deal with it. For the record i love Akira and i have watched this film a million times and i really dont mind any changes that are made to make it appeal to a wider audience you have to remember that not everyone is a geek like a lot of us on this site and would not have watched the anime or read the manga.
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tsetsuo? that pea-brain!
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Morgan Freeman in no way whatsoever fits the character of the general... At best he's one of the other politicians... But if this is the way casting is going, then it just goes to show that no one behind this film really gives a damn, and Zack Efron is in no way going to portray Kaneda, he's just going to be Zac Efron on a motorcycle, and the motorcycle will be a Harley Davidson and will talk... that HH cartoon is becoming truer day by day...
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It can still be set in Japan. And you can still have white people in central roles. Just make it such that following the Akira incident and the world war, Japan again came under American occupation/control. You can have all those fancy WWII allusions there as well. Then the colonel can be American (It will make sense), you can have a mixed cast of Japanese and Americans (makes sense) and it's still all set in Neo-Tokyo. American soldiers and contractors and their famalies are there and along the way, 2 white kids born and orphaned in Japan gets the names of Kaneda and Tetsuo. Their foreign-ness makes them outcasts and hence they become delinquints and make friends with other white, black and Asian peeps and form their biker gang. So we get the Neo Tokyo setting, we get a good cast that has the principal characters be American, and even American audiences love exotic locales like Japan etc. It worked for Empire of the Sun and Crouching Tiger and plenty of other movies! Everybody wins! All thats left is to pick proper actors for the roles. Why is this so friggin hard? Why even bother setting in in NY instead of Tokyo? Nobody's asking you to actually go fim in Tokyo! At most you just need lots of Asian extras, and it couldn't be that hard could it? They use CG and compositing tricks for practically all crowd simulations anyway...
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Check out the year 1977 at my blog: http://3dchain.instituteofidletime.com/2010/11/raddest-films-ever-part-7-year-1977.html
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Make Akira the reason Manhattan blows up in the intro. For some reason japanese kid's were being tested there, by Japan and America.<p> Akira devours the city somehow igniting WW3(terrorists?). Japan then fund's the rebuilding of Manhattan around the new resting site for Akira, turning Manhattan into Neo-Manhattan and with that a mix of Japanese and American overcrowded population at each others throat's all rioting. Turn the Clown gang into african americans then if you want, keep all or at least mostly all of Kaneda's gang asian. Throw in a couple more caucasians and your good, fuck make Kay a young american girl and throw in some Romeo and Juliet shite, if you must, just try make the main cast asian. And hire a director with some ball's talent and style. I'd trust Neill Blomkamp more than half a Hughes'.
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Freeman is all wrong for this. And he's too damn old for the role, too. What's wrong with the usual guys Hollywood hires for military brass roles? Someone mentioned Ironside. Kurtwood Smith also plays that type well. If they need that black demographic, hire The Rock.
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Akira had a big impact when it first hit America, but nowadays I don't know what about it would stand out enough to warrant an American live action version. The momentum and popularity isn't going to be there like it might have been 10 years ago or more. And on top of that it all just sounds wrong. Are they doing this because they remember Akira being really popular in the USA once and think it still will be now? Will they redesign everything Hollywood style or try to bring the anime designs into live action? Why don't they just be "inspired by" Akira and not try remaking it exactly? That might make for a much better received movie, as the route they are taking will piss off the fans they need to rely on, and just confuse those who don't know Akira.
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Zac Efron and Morgan Freeman? did these guys actually watch the anime or read the Manga?
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I fucking hate Hollywood. Luckily, it most likely will never actually get made.
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