For those who enjoy having their brains feel like eggs that have been beaten, scrambled, fried, put in a blender, and then shoved down a disposal while some guy screams "TETSUOOOOO!" over and over (in other words, Akira fans), here's a fun news tidbit for you...
"According to The Hollywood Reporter Warner Bros. and Leonardo DiCaprio are joining forces to produce a two-part live action adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's anime classic Akira. Ruairi Robinson has been tapped to direct the films from a screenplay/adaptation by Gary Whitta.
"Akira has been in development in Hollywood as a live action film for years with producers such as Jon (Shampoo) Peters and Basil Iwanyk involved along with directors Steve Norrington and Pitof. Warner Bros. originally had the rights, then let them lapse, and finally reacquired them for the new Robinson project. The studio hopes to release the first Akira film in 2009.
"In 1988 Katsuhiro Otomo directed the Akira anime, which was based on his manga. With its post-apocalyptic cyberpunk narrative and its incredibly fluid animation (the film utilized more than 160,000 cels), Akira demonstrated conclusively that animation wasn't just for kids and was one of the key films in the development of anime fandom in North America."
We do own the original Akira film on DVD, but I've never fully understood why. Something to do with that last paragraph, I guess. Personally, I find it creepy, trippy, and nonsensical...but to each their own. Akira fans, you may want to start your screams of "DICAPRIOOOOOO!" now, just in case he messes it up.
2 comments:
You know, the manga makes ssooooo much more sense. Hopefully they'll take a bit more from that. I doubt it, but I can hope. After The Departed, I'm not too worried about DiCaprio honestly... there's a lot more that can go wrong with this project after all...
I second Matt's comment - the manga (comic book) version is pretty lengthy and can go into way more detail about the various characters. The ending is more satisfactory.
They actually had the series at the library, so I read the whole thing not too long ago. Perhaps Leo's live adaptation will draw more from the printed story.
The whole Japan setting was so key to the story too...I'm curious if they'll try and shift the story to Washington DC or LA or NY or something (which would seem kind of awkward).
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