Jun 15 2009
Live Action Akira is Dead, Probably for the Best
I’m not particularly broken up about the news that the Leo DiCaprio-led live action remake of Akira is now officially dead. It sounds good in theory, but I have a feeling it would be an overall disappointment for fans of the original, no matter how faithful it is, much like Watchmen earlier this year. But I guess now we’ll never know, at least not until Hollywood runs out of toys to make movies out of and digs this thing out of the ground five years from now. From Bloody Disgusting:
“Sad news comes in this weekend as we have learned that not only has Robinson left the project, but Tetsuo and Kaneda’s adventure is “dead as a doornail,” a report we’ve confirmed with two separate sources.”
Well, so long for now live-action Akira, but I’m willing to be we’ll see each other again someday.
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Akira is awesome, and for anyone of a certain age probably their gateway film into anime, but it certainly has its flaws. Condensing that much raw material into one film is tough and the end result is confusing as f–k. The 6-volume manga doesn’t even make total sense.
I think this could definitely be an awesome live-action movie and one that could probably benefit from being dumbed down a bit. More than anything it’s a visual feast. I think the one thing they need to keep faithful to is the setting, which there is 0 chance they would. A large-budget American movie set in Japan and starring Japanese actors? One can only dream. Basically I just want to see Kaneda tearing around Neo-Tokyo on his sick motorcycle with a laser gun.
Also, am I the only one that thought it was odd that Leonardo DiCaprio was getting this done? There is nothing about him that makes me think he has any geek sensibilities whatsoever. All that Hollywood clout and he hasn’t pushed through a single cool geek flick. None of his films get even remotely close to sci-fi or fantasy elements.