5 Urgent Questions About the Live-Action Akira Remake

What?! This is the first I've heard about this at all! I LOVE Akira! I was like 12 when I first saw it and I didn't understand it at all, but that changed over time (my age and my understanding). Too bad I'm at work and the site is content blocked ... I can't wait to check this out!
 
I'm weary about this too, but I have some trust in WB and DiCaprio's Appian Way (Shutter Island, The Aviator) to get this right; I mean, it could be in much worse hands. My neighbor is an intern at Appian and has read a couple of different incarnations of the script and says it's looking really golden right now.
 
If it isn't Tokyo, it isn't Akira, and that's as simple as saying white isn't black. You might as well set Doctor Zhivago in Australia or Lawrence of Arabia in Vancouver.
 
David Jimerson said:
If it isn't Tokyo, it isn't Akira, and that's as simple as saying white isn't black.
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Meh, it may not be that Akira, but it'll be its own Akira inspired by the material--which is all they're going for. A simple concept to grasp as well. Whether it'll end up a good film or not, I have no idea. But I'm willing to put my reservations on hold for just about anything as long as I get to see a good movie.
 
they lost me at "Travis", well before that but TRAVIS!!! I can take the western casting kind of, do not like the relocation could have been white people in japan (makes no sense but still better than this... I think). Making it live action mah, but if you are to remake it at least they aren't trying to fully erase the original by releasing a new anime version of it.

It's sad that this could potentially be a younger generations doorway to the original movie and anime itself (real anime not westernized anime).

you'd think they would have learned their lesson with horrible adaptations like dragon ball z and avatar the last air bender, a live action version of popular mangas and animes has never been pulled off successfully in my opinion ( from what I have seen.)

some movies deserve and ask for remakes, not movies that are beautiful works of art I'm sorry but I doubt anyone could improve on Akira without fundamentally changing the story itself. In that case you might as well just say it was inspired by and tell your own story and not destroy another person's work. But then again this all hinges on this being a bad movie all signs point to bad so far for me but who knows, I have been pleasantly surprised before. I hope I'm wrong and it's amazing as you can most likely tell I am a huge fan of the movie and story itself and would love a well put together live action based around it, it's just very risky and unlikely.

TETSUOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
 
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vcassel said:
Meh, it may not be that Akira, but it'll be its own Akira inspired by the material--which is all they're going for. A simple concept to grasp as well. Whether it'll end up a good film or not, I have no idea. But I'm willing to put my reservations on hold for just about anything as long as I get to see a good movie.
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If no trace of faithfulness is necessary for you, that's fine as far as it goes -- but Akira fans will be, I'd wager, a trifle more discerning . . . and vocally so.

Anyway, there are plenty of good movies which don't pretend to be something they're not, so if I'm going to see something called "Akira," I sure would like it to take a shot at being Akira.
 
What bothers me most about it is that Kaneda and Tetsuo are supposed to be... what? 14 years old or something? Right?
These guys are all in their 30s.
Joaquin Phoenix is 36!

A little late in life to be school punks in bike gangs, isn't it?

A 14-year-old fighting the government and a 30-something fighting the government are two very different movies.

Kaneda should be someone like Edward Furlong was in Terminator 2, a kid.
 
David Jimerson said:
but Akira fans will be, I'd wager, a trifle more discerning . . . and vocally so.
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Yeah, but ain't that almost always the case with adapted work? You see at least some level of fan contention with almost every comic book adaptation. Hell, there was a very vocal group against Tom Cruise as Lestat.

I really doubt any studio is going to be shaking in its boots because some fans are shaking their fists through the internet. People are always looking for a reason to shake their fists through the internet.
 
Yeah but why not keep the already built up fans, and add to that the general populace that's what I never understood about remakes/adaptations. Yes it's hard to accomplish but isn't that all of our goals to make the best product possible?

For the most part I feel it is screenwriters nervous about their contribution so they create their own storyline instead of just doing a great adaptation of the original story, to look like a better writer, but to me that is bad writing, good writing is making the adaptation stay true to the source material as much as the new medium allows, but we all have our own ways of doing things so...
 
S. Matthews said:
yeah but why not keep the already built up fans, and add to that the general populace that's what I never understood. Yes it's hard to accomplish but isn't that all of our goals to make the best product possible?
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That assumes that making the best product possible is mutually exclusive with being faithful to the source material. I'd take it on a case by case basis along with many other variables.

It's funny, but I remember similar pockets of contention when James Cameron first started talking about his take on Battle Angel. I'm just excited to have the original material to enjoy and I welcome any fresh takes to enjoy in addition.
 
S. Matthews said:
For the most part I feel it is screenwriters nervous about their contribution so they create their own storyline instead of just doing a great adaptation of the original story, to look like a better writer, but to me that is bad writing, good writing is making the adaptation stay true to the source material as much as the new medium allows, but we all have our own ways of doing things so...
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Have you read the screenplay? I think it may be a bit early to label it as "bad writing" just because the location and ages have changed. To me, because I write regularly, I don't see a location change as being drastic as a story structure level change. But even then, a drastic change like that may work to its benefit. I trust Appian to recognize that.
 
I just read the article ... I ... I don't even want to see this now.

This isn't Akira ... this is ...

/art

I'm really bummed right now.
 
vcassel said:
Yeah, but ain't that almost always the case with adapted work? You see at least some level of fan contention with almost every comic book adaptation. Hell, there was a very vocal group against Tom Cruise as Lestat.

I really doubt any studio is going to be shaking in its boots because some fans are shaking their fists through the internet. People are always looking for a reason to shake their fists through the internet.
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No, actually, studios do tremble in front of such things. Just within the last few weeks:

http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/wonder-woman-costume-gets-an-upgrade--2645

And when word of mouth, amplified a millionfold by the Internet, can kill a project before it even gets anywhere, they're wise to do so.

But this isn't a mere "fresh take" on Akira, or a mere problem with a costume or casting a single role. This is taking everything that makes Akira actually be Akira and changing it, for no artistically sound reason, and still trying to sell it as though it IS Akira.

Highly unfaithful adaptions of original works do get panned for being bad adaptions -- by critics, by fans, and ultimately, by the box office. And generally, the more unfaithful it is, the worse it does in all three -- unless it presents itself as something entirely different (like The Magnificent Seven, maybe). Not hard to see why; the more unfaithful you get, the more you lose what was appealing about it in the first place, and when you lose that, you lose everything.
 
vcassel said:
I don't see a location change as being drastic as a story structure level change.
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If you don't see the location change being critical for this story, then I'm not sure you actually get the story on more than a superficial level. It is every bit about being Japanese as Doctor Zhivago is about being Russian. You cannot change the setting without utterly eviscerating what the story is about, without erasing the whole point of it existing.

Sure, you can have a story where similar things happen, but it's not the same story. It's not the ornaments which make it what it is, it's the point of view, the culture, the zeitgeist of the people in it. It doesn't work anywhere else. Akira isn't a story about New Yorkers in New York. It's a story about Japanese kids in Tokyo, and everything that makes it Akira flows from that.
 
David Jimerson said:
No, actually, studios do tremble in front of such things. Just within the last few weeks:

http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/wonder-woman-costume-gets-an-upgrade--2645

And when word of mouth, amplified a millionfold by the Internet, can kill a project before it even gets anywhere, they're wise to do so.
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Yeah, but then there's Wolverine which had horrible word of mouth and giant fan backlash in concerns to Deadpool's look. It still did great at the box office. What concerns me is that you're using an example that hasn't been released yet to be judged on its own merits as a whole.

This is taking everything that makes Akira actually be Akira and changing it
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They're changing everything? I highly doubt you would know this.

for no artistically sound reason
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So, you've read the script?

and still trying to sell it as though it IS Akira.
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It IS Akira. Maybe not the Akira you know or want, but Akira nonetheless.

Not hard to see why; the more unfaithful you get, the more you lose what was appealing about it in the first place, and when you lose that, you lose everything.
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What's the laundry list of what's being lost here? Do you really know? Locations? Ages? That's everything? I'm sorry, but you're railing against something we know very little about. Indeed, it may end up sucking, but I do think it's far too early to make some sort of ultimate judgement.
 
David Jimerson said:
If you don't see the location change being critical for this story, then I'm not sure you actually get the story on more than a superficial level.
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Oh, don't worry--I get Akira. And I don't need you to take it upon yourself to determine what I'm capable of comprehending beyond a superficial level. You don't even know me, dude. No need to turn it personal.
 
vcassel said:
Oh, don't worry--I get Akira. And I don't need you to take it upon yourself to determine what I'm capable of comprehending beyond a superficial level. You don't even know me, dude. No need to turn it personal.
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Simply responding to what you said about yourself as a writer. You say that being a writer gives you insight into this. I honestly don't mean it to be insulting, but if you don't see the location as critical, then I really do think you've missed the point. But I didn't say you weren't capable of comprehending it by any means.

But let's be fair -- what would be a critical, crucial change?
 
vcassel said:
Yeah, but then there's Wolverine which had horrible word of mouth and giant fan backlash in concerns to Deadpool's look. It still did great at the box office.
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Wolverine followed three successful films and continued with their most popular character and actor. That didn't happen in a vacuum.

Had they gone back, recast the part, and made Wolverine himself into something entirely different from the first three films, then I think the game would have changed considerably.


What concerns me is that you're using an example that hasn't been released yet to be judged on its own merits as a whole.
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It doesn't matter. Fan response caused the studio to change something to which there was a negative reaction. Studios do pay attention.


They're changing everything? I highly doubt you would know this.



So, you've read the script?



It IS Akira. Maybe not the Akira you know or want, but Akira nonetheless.



What's the laundry list of what's being lost here? Do you really know? Locations? Ages? That's everything? I'm sorry, but you're railing against something we know very little about. Indeed, it may end up sucking, but I do think it's far too early to make some sort of ultimate judgement.
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As I explained above, and as they put very well in the article at the link, they've changed just about everything that makes it Akira. Merely having the same title doesn't make it actually the thing.
 
David Jimerson said:
Simply responding to what you said about yourself as a writer. You say that being a writer gives you insight into this. I honestly don't mean it to be insulting, but if you don't see the location as critical, then I really do think you've missed the point. But I didn't say you weren't capable of comprehending it by any means.
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Fair enough.

But let's be fair -- what would be a critical, crucial change?
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The thing is, we have disasters here too; there are many things we're hyped up to fear, and there are many anxieties internally and externally. Anything can be used as an American analogue for the majority of people in an American market to relate to. I'm reminded most recently of Cloverfield--what I consider an effective film. Of course it's not the same as Godzilla, but I think they could've gotten away with it using the same creature if there wasn't the residual fear of the earlier American adaptation, an adaptation they got very wrong. Godzilla is based on many of the underlying concepts of fear that Akira is. In Cloverfield's case a very American fear is used in the wake of a very painful American memory, but the result is the same. I think with Akira you can get away with an American analogue. As long as the relationships are maintained between the characters, I think you can have very similar results.
 
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