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EXCLUSIVE: The twists and turns on the Warner Bros adaptation of anime artist Katsuhiro Otomo’s graphic novel Akira continue. Director Albert Hughes is exiting the movie, I’m told. Insiders say that it is an amicable creative differences parting of the ways. Warner Bros will try to put him on another movie right away (Hughes and his brother Allen directed the hit The Book of Eli, and WB topper Jeff Robinov is their former agent and is very close with them). Hughes is coming to Hollywood next week to take meetings with his WME reps and look at scripts, hoping to find his next movie at Warner Bros.
As for Akira, the intention of the studio is to keep the picture on a fast track, which means they will find a director quickly. The studio has been wrestling with the approach on the film for the past year. Last March, Warner Bros put together a short list of up-and-coming actors after getting a strong rewrite by Steve Kloves that set the film in a rebuilt New Manhattan, where a leader of a biker gang saves his friend from a medical experiment. At the time, Robert Pattinson, Andrew Garfield and James McAvoy were given the script for the role of Tetsuo, and Garrett Hedlund, Michael Fassbender, Chris Pine, Justin Timberlake and Joaquin Phoenix were courted for Kaneda. The two leads were expected to come from that group of actors. Then, the studio had a change of heart and, given the budget, wanted to have an established box office star in the movie. That led to a flirtation with Keanu Reeves that ended recently.
Warner Bros is back to the other plan, and will likely go back to that list of actors in hopes of making the picture later this year or early next.
Andrew Lazar is producing with Appian Way’s Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson Killoran. Akira has been one of Warner Bros’ high-priority projects since the studio with Legendary Pictures acquired it for a seven-figure sum two years ago from manga publisher Kodansha. The intention has been to make two films, each covering three books in the series. Akira was first adapted for the screen in 1988.
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I pray to God that they bring in Otomo, even as a ‘creative consultant’.
Why are all these actors being considered? The two characters are NO older than TWENTY! It’s like Rebel W/O A Cause, not Blade Runner. Wake UP!
Less than 20. They’re high school students.
I’m more worried about them making a PG-13 adaptation, which would simply be crappy. Kind of like if they remade Battle Royale… Wait. The Hunger Games is Battle Royale without the rape scenes, nevermind.
In the manga, they are fifteen. (Tetsuo is, at least)
Drug-taking fifteen-year-old Japanese rioters – now what problem could Hollywood have with THAT?
IIRC, they aged up the characters quite a bit and changed a lot of other things in the story, too, so those actors fit the new age group.
Pattinson may get the lead because he’s “bankable”. .. meaning the movie will be able to get financing. They’ll supplment his poor acting with a stellar supporting cast.
Banzi -
The script is soul-less junk, so this is probably a good thing for all involved. It’s basically SPEED RACER 2.
Oh…then Zac Efron would be perfect for this, Maybe it would revive his career. Do they not get what a stupid idea this entire thing is?
This is insane. If you’re going to do a live action version of an Anime with Asian characters, hire effing Asian actors for it, and don’t move it to the USA.
Yeah, Jacky Chan as Kaneda and Jet Li as Tetsuo is fine. Or maybe they could find someone even older for the role of Kaneda?
yup… those are the only two asian actors out there right?
i still can’t even begin to fathom how they plan to turn this into a movie, given the original source material. especially when you factor in just how creatively bankrupt Hollywood’s been for the last 20 years.
I disapprove this movie project since I heard the action was relocated to Neo-Manhattan… what a joke!
Why on Earth do they insist on americanizing this classic?!?
Japan is very pivotal to the story and themes of Akira. Not only that, but NONE of those actors mentioned is even close to what the characters should be. Not only are they ALL NON-JAPANESE but also the wrong age range. The main characters of the gang are TEENS. 19 at the most!
What’s next, americanizing/white-washing Marvel’s Black Panther?
C’MON, Warner Bros.! Fitting yourselves for cinematic cement shoes on this one!
I’m sure they’ll try to say they’re trying to make it more relevant and marketable to American audiences, but the thing of it IS the people that love Akira, THE FANS, love it the way it is. The fans NOT ONLY over there in Japan, BUT here in the U.S. and EVERYWHERE ELSE!
Yeah, I know, live-action adaptations will NEVER be 100% to the source material, but my GOD there’s a REASON that the property was OPTIONED IN THE FIRST PLACE and THAT is because it was so popular and beloved IN THE FIRST PLACE to begin with!
IF they want to save themselves on this one, Warner Bros. BETTER put it in turnaround:
*Japanese setting of Neo-Tokyo NOT New Manhattan!
You change THAT you lose all the thematic context such as the parallels between Neo-Tokyo and Hiroshima.
Or the thing with all the japanese cults taking to the streets in preparation for what they believe to be the resurrection of Akira.
*Japanese actors and actresses.
*The main characters of the gang should be played by japanese actors in their teens to age 19, permitting youthful looking actors that may be over the age group of teens.
If they allow this and it fails I TOLD YOU SO.
Neo Tokyo is itself a character in the story. If you change it to “Neo Manhattan,” you lose a great deal of what is cool about the project.
But, at least Hughes is gone. He’s a totally incompetent director and would have certainly ruined what small chance this film has of being successful, just like he ruined “From Hell.”
Since when have studios cared about the fans?
I can just see the “Notes” coming down from VPs who love to add their pathetic “creativity” to whoever directs this film – changing characters sex from male to female, etc.
Can’t you just hear someone in the executive suites yelling, “What the FUCK do the fans know about AKIRA anyway?”
Dwayne o “what the f@&k do you no!”
have you ever read AKIRA?
Warner Bros aren’t going to let this lie are they? Out of those actors listed i’d probably go with Phoenix and Pattinson – interesting duo IMO. Although i’d prefer it if this project never saw the light of day.
This movie should not happen. Forget that all-too familiar white-washing, some of the animation from the movie and GN series would be impossible to recapture in live-action.
And I agree with mk, these are supposed to be kids. The only baby-faces in that group are Pattinson and Andrew Garfield. Adults except for the Colonel and the scientist, take a back seat.
WarnerBros managers are out of their minds. This movie is doomed to fail. New Manhattan what?? It’s NEO TOKYO !
Why the heck they want to oblige having black actors everywhere but they don’t want an high budget movie set in Japan with asian actors,uh? Is that politically correctness by which standard?
Turn back to the original true and only AKIRA before it’s late.
This movie can be a huge it if done properly and if it stays absolutely true to its material. Then with some clever marketing they could easily sell an all asian cast as long as script, action scenes, CGI and actors performance are high quality.
Hollywood goes with what makes money and take few risk on unknowns.Asian actors are unknowns in the eyes of the Hollywood, so hollywood is less likely to cast asian actors in starring roles on any mid to high budget film.Akira is going to be a high budget film, so there’s your answer.The only way asian actors are going to break through in the american film industry is that asian publisher start appling conditon to their selling of the right to their books/manga to america film company or when there is an asian actor that can carry a film with a $80 million to $150 million production budget like a Will Smith.
All this hate for this movie. No offence but its not like this has been the first time a huge cultural anime has been whitewashed in movie history. And some have actually done really well. I don’t recall anybody moaning about them.
True. We all remember how Dragon Ball Evolution was greatly revered by the critics and went #1 for 7 weeks straight.
WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT DRAGON BALL EVOLUTION? “YOU’RE CORRECT THAT DIDNT SUCK AT ALL!!!!!!” ITS BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU WE GET SO MUSH GARBAGE OUT OF HOLLYWOOD
YOU’RE CORRECT, “DRAGON BALL EVOLUTION WAS SUCH A GREAT FILM, OR STREET FIGHTER!!!!” ITS BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU WE GET ALL THIS GARBAGE FROM HOLLYWOOD!
Yeah, I do. I remember people rightfully moaning about them. Quite a lot of people, actually. And the studios didn’t listen then, and those films, despite your insistence that some have done “really well”, have universally tanked and become at best cautionary tales. So stop trying to call everybody out when you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.
If you’re gonna make an anime movie live action choose a good one like Ninja Scroll or Ghost in The Shell
They are – Spielberg has GITS, and DiCaprio has Ninja Scroll.
You guys are missing the point. It’s not that they should make this with Japanese teenagers. The fact is that this should not be made at all.
If they did it for the fans only they would lose hundreds of millions of dollars and ruin dozens of peoples careers, so what is the point? Same problem with Aeon Flux and the Tenacious D movie. They took something with a small fan base and tried to twist it into something that would appeal to a larger crowd and ended up not appealing to anyone…
I could not agree more. Even if they did the movie “right”, absolutely faithful to the source material, with a Japanese cast and an R rating, they’d be left with a movie that’s only going to appeal to the small number of people that already liked the original. Akira, as much I love it, is not a very appealing work, and this idea that most Americans would be lining up around the block to watch a harrowing, three-hour, subtitled, ultra-violent parade of all the worst aspects of human nature is just wishful thinking.
It’s a cult movie. Just leave it alone, Hollywood.
This film needs Zak Snyder hell James Cameron directing it if there’s to be any sort of chance of it’s success.
The reason animation worked is because it’s so wild and imaginative and trippy and…well…animation is the only venue that could handle it.
The scope of this film is too large for Hughes so him dropping out is a good sign…let’s hope more follow.
Zack Snyder, huh?
Have you seen any of his films in the past 4-5 years? All garbage.
if Man of Steel turns out to be decent, it’ll be because Chris Nolan is kicking that a$$ everyday.
Agreed. Snyder is a hack, and has made it abundantly clear that he can only adapt something in the shallowest, most boneheaded way possible. It’ll be a small miracle of Man of Steel turns out to be any good at all, and even then, I’d hesitate to give him much credit.
Enough with the Snyder-bashing. You fuckers make me sick. Goddamn trolls. “Sucker Punch” was a non-sequel, non-prequel, non-remake, non-reboot TOUR-DE-FORCE that proves if ANYBODY can make live-action anime it’s Zack. You trolls CLEARLY haven’t seen the flick. The shit rocked in IMAX, it wasn’t even in 3D. In fact, I’d say it was better than THOR *with* 3D. The only reason it tanked is because America is stupid, middlebrow, Disney red state hell.
That said, Americanized Akira? Caucasian actors with Japanese names? Bad idea, peeps.
“You’ve got everything you need. Now FIGHT.”
I saw Sucker Punch and I had high hopes for it going back to seeing Zach at comic-con the year before but truth of the matter is its a terrible mess of a movie that is just a couple of interesting scenes that sometimes come with an anime feel but for the most part its really a retarded story and just completely convoluted, I did however think that Zach would be good to do a Ninja Scroll movie based on the one scene from sucker punch but hes got to let someone else write it and maybe get himself a new producer who is not his wife
Word, 100%!
I too also loved Sucker Punch-loved it so much that I bought the soundtrack album just to hear the great version of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ and ‘Love Is The Drug’ that was heard in the movie! I think that most people are full of shit for not getting Sucker Punch (critics included) and I think that one day, it will be considered a classic like many film that weren’t well-regarded when released originally but became so as the years passed.
As to all this caterwauling about the Akira movie: if I was the one in charge, I’d make the movie a mixed cast, white, black and Asian, with Akira as an Asian character. But the main thing that I want to say is: If the Japanese could get together to make the animated movie as the Akira Committee, then they should be able to get together as the same committee to make a live action one. The fact that it hasn’t happened yet shows that either they don’t care about this cultural treasure of theirs, or they’re too lazy to do the job of making a live action movies themselves-in which case, as the old saying goes, ‘You snooze, you lose’.
This idea seems sketchy at best. So many different problems and complaints around it. Hughes dropping out won’t really affect anything. I know everyone says get Asian actors and stay true to the source material but it’s obvious why they don’t. Hollywood panders to the white audience. They feel they have a greater chance at success and at making more money. Name something that has mostly Asian actors speaking in English that has made a ton of money over here. The most successful Asian movie in North America was Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon by far, no one else is even close. They should just go international with the casting. People might be against it because of the source material but I would rather have fanboys angry at me then a bunch of a-holes labeling me as a racist.
“Name something that has mostly Asian actors speaking in English that has made a ton of money over here”
ummm…
Name something that has mostly Asian actors speaking in English that has EVER BEEN MADE BY HOLLYWOOD.
Oh yeah, THE JOY LUCK CLUB. That was 20 years ago. And it made money.
Akira is not the Joy Luck Club. And maybe it would make money but are you going to put $200 million on the line on a risk. I know Hollywood won’t. They’re too busy developing remakes and raping the hero & fairytale genres. Everyone can keep arguing about white washing and all that other crap because we all know Hollywood’s about doing what’s right not making money. Oh wait…it is about the money. Those racist bastards.
You do have a point, but perhaps the industry is waking up to the fact that international markets really matter — see Thor or Fast Five as two recent examples. IMO, if Akira is made into a live-action film by an American studio, it should be based in Tokyo, and at least *some* of the major characters should be played by Japanese actors. The story already incorporates American characters, and that’s the vector for bringing in “names” recognizable to worldwide audiences.
In a perfect world they would set in in Neo-Tokyo because of the connection to Hiroshima. But I can see them setting it somewhere in Nevada where the US did their tests and set in Neo-Las Vegas. Man that sounds weird and kind of shitty. The international market is playing a much bigger role, my only fear is that while people here are finally getting sick of movies like Pirates 4 the international audience is keeping a dead horse alive. But at least the online community seems to agree that they better not screw Akira up.
Hopefully it dies on the vine, hands off a great original, just let it be.
there is a lot of nasty press around this movie. i would be suprised if any of those actors listed take the role.
I agree with White Lantern, especially about not using Asian actors. If the studio can’t do any better than changing the whole story to make it ‘American’ then they should let it go….
I bet Albert Hughes could not stand working with Jennifer Killoran. Everyone knows she has no clue when it comes to producing.
Obviously, Albert Hughes finally came to the realization that the $ simply wasn’t worth what’s left of his soul. Whitewashing is evil. Until the powers understand that simple fact, this & every movie of this kind (“Speedracer”, “The Last Airbender” et al) is doomed.
No duh he pulled out! Anyone who works with Jennifer Killoran has to be nuts! She’s a lunatic!
Best case scenario: grab Justin Lin while “Terminator” is in limbo, and let him cast whoever the hell he wants. He did “Better Luck Tomorrow,” remember, so he can find young APA talent.
Just stop now, before you actually make this movie. Be creative and make something new. All the fans are happy with Akira just the way it is.
Live action Akira sounds great, neo-manhattan Akira with 30 year olds? Sounds like my childhood getting raped again. Honestly who could successfully direct this thing?