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Warner Bros is in talks with filmmakers Allen and Albert Hughes to direct Akira, a live action version of anime artist Katsuhiro Otomo’s 6-volume graphic novel. The story takes place in the rebuilt New Manhattan where a leader of a biker gang saves his friend from a medical experiment. Andrew Lazar is producing with Appian Way’s Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson Killoran. Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Book of Eli scribe Gary Whitta wrote a script which originally had Ruairi Robinson aboard to direct.
The Hughes Brothers’ last graphic novel adaptation was the Johnny Depp film From Hell. The brothers are hot again after returning from a 9-year layoff as a directing team for Alcon Entertainment’s The Book of Eli, the post-apocalyptic drama distributed by Warner Bros that has drafted behind Avatar over the past 4 weeks to turn in a respectable $83 million domestic gross.
Akira has been one of Warner Bros’ high priority projects since the studio with Legendary Pictures acquired it for a 7-figure sum 2 years ago from manga publisher Kodansha. The intention has always been to make 2 films, each covering 3 books in the series. Akira was first adapted for the screen in 1988.
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I hate this idea sooo much…
There was an American Godzilla movie once upon a time… that worked out well too. Oh wait.
Not every story can have it’s cultural underpinnings ripped away and stay intact. This is most certainly an example of a uniquely Japanese story that only works in it’s native context.
As a fan of the original manga and anime I can’t wait to miss this film.
Oh god no, please no! The Hughes Bros are the biggest hacks on the planet. Why would anyone give them such a huge geek tentpole like Akira after their abominable From Hell adaptation?
All I say is shades of Dragonball!
This is great news!!
Roughly $90 million worldwide B.O. on an approximately $85 million budgeted movie (not including P&A) is hardly “respectable”. In fact, it’s quite the reverse. The fact that WB would get back into business with these directors after the financial and critical failure that is Book of Eli can only be attributable to one (and possible all) of: 1) the savvy of the Hughes’ agents; 2) a contractual commitment the studio had no choice but to honor; or 3) the ineptitude of the creative decision-makers at WB.
What. A. Joke.
“Eli” will do north of $250MM worldwide, not 90MM. When you start with false assumtions everything else you say becomes irrelevant,
Get your facts straight then you’ll come up with the right answers.
Where are you getting YOUR numbers, fella?
250M is pretty conservative worldwide. It’s barely been released internationally (only a couple weeks in a few territories and it’s already in the teens). It’ll easily get to 90M domestic, probably will grind to 100M.
Looks like it hasn’t been released in some major markets… Germany, Russia, anywhere in Asia.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=bookofeli.htm
No, I’d say it’s pretty respectable. A January action flick, opens against Avatar, and still manages to make a good deal higher than Denzel Washington films typically make. Not sure what you were expecting.
What was it about BOOK OF ELI and FROM HELL (or even their grossly overrated MENACE II SOCIETY) that jumped out to the suits at WB as proof that they could handle an adaptation of AKIRA?
The (WB) Emperor has no clothes. All of their smart business decisions seem to begin and end with the name Nolan.
Forreals? Happens everyday in Hollywood and has been happening for years now; so if box office is your criteria then the biz as a whole is a joke in that case.
Glad to see the Hughes Bros. working again. But “Akira”? That could be as challenging as bringing Watchmen to the screen.
I’ve always loved asian films and music having said that I hold a great despise for anime of any kind and usually write it off as masturbation for teenage fantasies, but I always thought of Akira as a kind of lighthouse among a sea of shit, it truly held a place in my mind for its excellent writing which captured the post war Tokyo culture so exceedingly well and each time I watch the film I find my self finding something new to dissect and interpret. I always get nauseous when I hear news of some typecast hollywood type adapting an asian film (I still get sick to my stomach trying to imagine a Will Smith Oldboy) and I fear that somewhere between the Book of Eli or their film about down and out black kids that the message of akira will just get butchered….
If they make Akira, I hope they cast a Japanese actor some some white guy. Make the story authentic, that’s why some of these movies fail because they make them stupid.
AWESOME!!!
Is it going to be in 3D?
Takeshi Kaneshiro would rock the title role!
The title role? You mean Akira? Akira the character is barely in the manga or anime, he’s mostly just referred to. Basically what I’m saying here is that YOUR OPINION IS MOOT.
“…takes place in the rebuilt MANHATTAN”???
Geeze – give ‘em the rights and they start changing everything. It was supposed to be the rebuilt TOKYO.
If it takes place in Manhattan instead of Tokyo will it be renamed “Akirastein?”
Done in the Avatar ‘full immersion’ style it could be fantastic.
IA. Avatar made me believe that filmmakers might now actually be capable of adapting anime for live action successfully. But I don’t think these two guys are capable of that level of work unfortunately.
AKIRA is to anime what WATCHMEN is to comics. I’ve never seen the Hughes brothers do anything that makes me think they’d do a good AKIRA movie, but Im happy for them that they get to try, and any AKIRA film wilm will totally kick ass, as long as there are at least 30 “Canadaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!”s.
“Canada” ? Really? Step slowly away from your computer white man and never speak about anything Asian again.
lol yeah right retarded jap comic books are so precious, thanks for holding the special olympics standard high
jap? really? take your Klan behavior somewhere else.
Actually, “Canada” is a much more appropriate pronunciation of “Kaneda” than the way it was originally pronounced in the first American dub.
So I haven’t seen it in ten years. Still made a deep impression on me.
Huge anime fan, but I believe Akira is one of the most overrated anime movies ever made. The manga on the other hand is pretty good, though not as good as Berserk. I think the Hughes brothers have the vision to pull off the movie and make it better and more clearer than the anime version.
“9 year lay-off”. Interesting way of putting it.
The guys are two angry roosters locked in the hen house and when it comes to the work, the more technical of the two wants to but doesn’t have the creative mindset and the more visionary (creative) of the two would rather spend his days in Amsterdam or Prague (Yes. Doing that.).
Great early potential for an amazing future turned…well…we’ll see.
WOw! “Genius! We should re-make AKIRA in rebuilt Vancouver- CANADA! That would really make the storyline more relevant than the original Tokyo! While we’re at it lets have them all speak French, ride hybrid bicycles and fight eco-terroists!” Why must all great movies be remade by people that never understood what made the original great to begin with?
“Canadaaaaaaaa, god save the queen, eh!”
They don’t get it – Akira is cool BECAUSE its set in Tokyo, not despite of it. You take the Nihon-ness out of it, and its not half as interesting as it was.
If Americans are willing to watch a movie about 12 foot tall blue people, they can handle an all-Asian cast. There are some characters in the story you could make white if you must (the Colonel, for example), but there’s no good reason (besides passive racism) to move this film to an American location. If anyone could be sensitive to this issue, you’d think it would be a pair of black film-makers.
Yeah I hate this shit. It doesn’t make any sense. Your last sentence is dead on. I mean if their not going to make it the right way (which they won’t) then don’t make it all. You know pulling all the stops, a mostly asian cast, making it as authentic and close to the actual film and manga as possible.
Yet another example of the dense thought process of the American film industry that feels it needs to turn every animated classic into some live action drivel.
As part of a WB meet ‘n’ greet, I was shown the original director’s pitch that inspired the 7-figure licensing bid. And you know what it was? 4 minutes…of footage from the animated Akira…cut with footage from various war and sci-fi films…with some title slugs in Akira font’…and 12 seconds of CG ‘concepts’ at the end…set to classical music and some original Akira soundtrack.
Seriously Hollywood? This is what inspires you to champion a FRANCHISE? Any dork with IMovie and an anime friend w/after effects could’ve made that in a WEEKEND!!!
They seriously have ZERO clue. None of them. It’s almost sad…if it weren’t so criminal. Uggh.
I thought the original cartoon was an incoherent mess with a great story buried in there somewhere. The American remake could be good with a solid script.
I hope this isn’t another case of racebending in American cinema, a la THE LAST AIRBENDER. Why not NeoTokyo, and why not Asian actors?
Quit underestimating the American audience.
I definitely believe that the movie not being set in Tokyo is a big problem. Being the only people on the planet that have been “nuked” was a major influence of the original and tied heavily into the theme. Regardless of who is making the film, adapting it for American audiences is a waste of time. By changing the story it will just be another dumbed down sci-fi/action film that will leave its viewers wanting more.
Real recognize real. Without a doubt The Hughes Bros. need to be recognized for their “frame work” of putting out REAL content in the movie industry.
Much respect to the both of them for making movies such as;
-Menace II Society
-Dead Presidents
- and honarably, The Book of Eli
If they are contracted to make an AKIRA movie, I would say that is excellent news. I do think that they would keep as real as it should be without any strings attactched.