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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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Why all the hate?
Unless they plan to make the movie in Japanese and provide subtitles, I think American/Canadian actors are the best choice. There are only a handful of Asian Hollywood actors to choose from. Most of the famous Asian actors outside of Hollywood sound robotic/flat when reading English lines (yes, the same can be said for Keeanu Reeves and the like).
Either go full out Japanese and provide subtitles, which would result in it appealing to far fewer people, or use American actors that can deliver the lines without it coming across as banal or corny and reach a broader audience. The only ones who will be alienated are the fanboys.
There’s no beating the original anime anyway.
If it appeals only to fans of the manga and original animated film then great. It’s because of the studios trying to appeal to people who’ve never known, nor cared about Akira that is going to rape this franchise into oblivion. Any self-respecting fan knows better than to pay any amount of money to see this crap. So they incorporate a spectacularly awful 9-11 overtone to draw in the overly patriotic crowd which greatly outnumbers the core fanbase of the source material. So much has changed about it that the only connection between this and the original is the title. It shouldn’t even be called Akira anymore. It should be called Neo9-11 or something. Nothing excites me about this movie at all. I challenge any fan to come up with a sensible reason as to why this, given the alterations, will still be a great film.
Excuse me, but there ARE Asian actors out there. The American acting troupe East West Players employs MANY of them. Hollywood actively chooses not to employ them. Why? Because THEY believe that Asian actors won’t sell. But is that TRUE? We’ve had successes with ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ to most recently Memoirs of a Geisha’.
I also find your comment about language idiotic. You’re suggesting that Asian actors ‘can’t speak English’, at least well enough? Maybe if they just got of the boat.
There are MANY Asian and Asian-American actors who speak PERFECT English. You just haven’t seen much of them because studio’s don’t employ them and they don’t get jobs because they believe that audiences are less likely to watch a film starring non-Caucasian leads.
You’re basically suggesting we can’t have both. We CAN, just Hollywood doesn’t like to take risks.
There’s no beating the original manga, either, but the Akira Committee succeeded in making an animated movie of it. Let’s see if this one actually succeeds before we destroy it.
THANK YOU!!!! Sung Kang and Jay Chou come to mind for tetsuo and kaneda respectively. Because they can pull off a younger look. Or just fresh new Asian actors!
Honestly- an Akira live action movie? Sounds exciting on first pass, but then as soon as I start getting into the detail I realise this is going to be an exercise in disappointment for idealists like me. I’m not an obsessive fan, but I do love the movie and the graphic novels…. and I can’t see how they can possibly make this movie without me feeling sad whilst watching it. All those names mentioned in the article fill me with dread, and when I read Keanu Reeves’ name my heart sank. A fundamental misunderstanding of what made the original great, but who cares if they can make it appeal to the Fast & Furious crowd, eh?
I love this movie! Grew up imagining a live-action adaptation of this film. Taylor Lautner as Akira would perfect. Lautner’s got international boxoffice appeal and can kick ass. The story has a powerful premise, amazing set pieces, awesome action sequences, and an iconic hero as the lead character. All Warner Bros. needs is a director with a fresh vision…
You’ve gotta be kidding me.
This is ‘Dragonball Z; Evolution’ 2.0
Akira was a teenager. And JAPANESE.
i cannot WAIT for this movie!! Although…that having been said…i hope to god they put someone more accurate in the role of kaneda and tetsuo. and they need to make this movie as bloody as the anime was. but HELL YEAH
I swear to god if they cast Robert Pattinson in this movie, I’m gonna go on a shooting spree!!! The guy is a total pussy!!! And as if they even remotely considered Keanu Reeves… he’s like 50… what the hell were they thinking!?! Really every actor they mentioned is a poor casting choice… although I must admit, I do like James McAvoy, and he’s probably the only one I wouldn’t want to shoot in the face, but even he’s not right! If I were casting this movie I would seriously consider the Asian dude from The Green Hornet (I can’t think of his name at the moment)… he’s BADASS!!! And frankly, having a skinny white guy named Tetsuo really doesn’t make any sense. Sheesh… everything about this movie SCREAMS DISASTER!!!
Has it not occurred to anyone at WB to simply re-release a “remastered, 3D, whatever BS buzzword they want to stick on it” version of the original anime with “name” actors dubbing the voiceovers a la Princess Mononoke? I don’t care what Kaneda sounds like as long as he looks Japanese and is racing through the streets of Neo-Tokyo.
Neo-manhattan?!?! FAIL.
It’s like Hollywood has a grudge against Japan’s creative originality. AKIRA is one of the most famous animation and manga to come out of Japan for 30 years now. It’s bad enough Hollywood butchered Dragon Ball Z and Avatar the Last Airbender.
Watch out Robotech, Gundam, and Naruto!!!
Why do subtitled movies appeal to fewer people in America?
Yeah, I’m completely serious, the only place I know of this happening in is the States.
We Finns, for example, get everything subbed and guess what?
Foreign movies are actually far more popular here than Finnish movies.
Every time my friends and I have this discussion, we come to the conclusion Americans simply can’t read.
Americans simply don’t want to read when they go to the movies.Americans want things cater to them, so all movies must be in english if you want to get a larger audiences.
JUST LEAVE AKIRA ALONE.
The live adaptation will be a 100% FAILURE and ABORTION.
From my perspective, I think the US is ready for a movie with some good Asian American actors. I’m biased because I’m Asian American myself but I feel the climate of this country has changed enough that Americans care less about the specific actor in the movie and more about the quality of the movie. The problem here is that there are very few good Asian American actors that can pull off this role. The ones that I’ve seen recently in movies are distractingly bad in delivering their lines. Although having said that Aaron Yoo (Disturbia, 21) has promise and I could see being a good Tetsuo. Sung Kang (Fast 5) is not a good actor in my opinion. But he could fill the role of Yamata pretty well. Kaneda is the tough one.
I do agree that if the movie was made well with an all white cast, it has the most potential to make the most money. That’s just the state of things in the US and the world. However, I think its highly unlikely they can do this. In order to make this movie well, it has to be set in Japan and cast with Asian actors. They also need a great director that knows the source material and is able to translate the same tone to live action. This is where I personally think the most problem comes in. I think very few directors understand how to do this.
The thing is, people argue that the Dragon Ball movie and the Airbender movie were terrible because of the poor casting choice. Which is partially true. But those movies were doomed to fail because it was handled by people that don’t understand how to make movies like this well. If the studio producing the movie understood how to make the movie, perhaps we would have seen competent directors with potentially a cast of competent asian actors delivering a good movie. I think Asians NOT being cast in those movies was perhaps the best thing for Asian actors as a whole. If they were in fact cast in those movies, people would’ve regarded that as one of the contributing factors as to why those movies failed.
So back to my original question… I’m asking this because I really don’t know what to think. I personally think this country is ready for a hollywood produced blockbuster summer movie casting asian american actors. (however, like I said, I’m asian so I’m biased). But I think just the state of the movie going audience has changed quite a bit. People don’t seem to base their movie going dollars on the particular actors as much as things like, special effects, reviews, source material, etc. nowadays. Just as long as the Asian actors in Akira can say their lines well… and in English, then I honestly don’t see that making any difference as if they were to cast Edward the Vampire. In fact, I actually think more people would go to watch it. (that is assuming the movie was made well). What do you think?
Why are *any* white actors being considered?
Because Hollywood doesn’t want to cast Asian-American actors into roles even if they are written for them because of the systematic discrimination that is prevalent in Hollywood.
Please let this project die
It’s a dumb idea to simply remake the anime all over again in live action, so I don’t know why anybody – who whines about Hollywood’s lack of creative courage – can’t see the merit of taking the basic premise of “Akira” and running with it. It’s just insecure fanboy whining about someone creatively moving their cheese. I’m glad those making this are carrying on and aren’t worried about the screaming-and-smacking-their-head fit the too-obsessed will throw as this is made and released as opposed to those who can appreciate what’s going on with this approach conceptually. Yes the original Japan setting has it’s Hiroshima symbolism but Manhattan is the cultural crossroad of the world – an appropriate place for the apocalyptic setting of the next step in the evolution of humanity. You have to always remember science fiction is never about the future, it’s about RIGHT NOW – and when Akira came out in the 80′s “Japan Inc.” was THE world economic powerhouse. NOW it’s economy is projected to be the size of present-day Argentina in 30 years. There are many other aspects of the 1980′s “Akira” that are horribly, HORRIBLY dated today – aside from it’s depiction of 80′s era Japanese teenagers set in the future. So projecting the story from THIS point in history and spinning off of the original graphic novel series basic elements is a better choice in allowing the original to stand on it’s own while this new version explores other possibilities more relevant to THIS time looking forward. Plus, with this new effort, they’re not just adapting the original movie but the whole 36 issue series, which wasn’t even completed at the time of the original anime’s release – and goes much further along as an apocalyptic epic.
Yes, there ARE plenty of ways this could be messed up – and this news of Hughes departure does not sound encouraging (although I always thought the Hughes Brothers would be perfect for an American urban version Otomo’s “Domu: A Child’s Dream”) but it’s great that Warners still considers this an important project to carry on with and I, for one, eagerly await their effort.