Sci-Fi WB creating live-action Akira - Part 1

[terry78]

You really wanna piss off an anime fan say that dragon Ball is the best thing out of the industry.

 

[MovieSlave]

I'm no anime expert at all. I think i have seen Akira but i'm not 100% sure. I kind of remember bits of it...
Anyways one of my favorite movies of all time is Princess Mononoke. It's in my Top 10 for sure. I remember watching that and being completely awestruck.

I caught that in the theater last year, first time watching it. I thought it was great as well.

 

[Lencho01]

The story for Akira isn’t that great. It was the quality of the animation (and being the first introduction to anime for a lot of people outside of Japan) that makes it so popular. I’ve never read the manga and don’t know what wasn’t included in the anime (that supposedly will be in this film).

So, I’m mostly curious as to what exactly a live-action version can do to truly attract the general audience beyond just being another “okay” big budget film.

 

[HammerDown]

 

[Still Wynning]

Was looking at some gifs of The Hate U Give to get an idea of what the film could potentially look like.

Between the cinematographer’s eye for color and framing, and Waititi’s reverence to source material visual aesthetic, this film is going to look fantastic.

 

[Pennywise]

 

[chamber-music]

The story for Akira isn’t that great. It was the quality of the animation (and being the first introduction to anime for a lot of people outside of Japan) that makes it so popular. I’ve never read the manga and don’t know what wasn’t included in the anime (that supposedly will be in this film).

So, I’m mostly curious as to what exactly a live-action version can do to truly attract the general audience beyond just being another “okay” big budget film.

The Akira Manga is collected in six thick booked volumes so there is a lot that was left out of the Anime film. The film shortened the plot significantly and dropped very various side plots/characters.

Akira (manga) - Wikipedia.

 

[Lencho01]

The Akira Manga is collected in six thick booked volumes so there is a lot that was left out of the Anime film. The film shortened the plot significantly and dropped very various side plots/characters.

Akira (manga) - Wikipedia.

Yeah, I know there was a lot of missing compared to manga. Is this live-action version supposed to be more than one film?

I haven’t really bothered to check if that’s the case. If not, I’d imagine they would still just take a lot how the anime was, which I feel didn’t have that great of story but really great animation. So, outside of make money it’s kinda “Eh...” for me in terms of how “special” or “different” this could be from any other futuristic film. But we shall see.

 

[HammerDown]

Director: Taika Waititi
Cinematographer: Mihai Malaimare Jr.
Production Designer: Ra Vincent
Costume Designer: Mayes C. Rubeo

Basically the usual TW team. Nice.

Spoiler

 

[Da-Scribe]

Definitely getting more and more hyped for this.

 

[Pennywise]

 

[2kt09]

 

[Still Wynning]

Something makes me wonder if they’ve already been in the pre-production/scriptwriting phase for longer than we think.

Taika could have been working on Akira concurrently with Jojo Rabbit, since it’s a bit of a smaller production that it wouldn’t be so hard for Taika to also be helping script this film and overseeing preproduction. (The man’s crazy enough to do it. lol) And it’s not unheard of for there to be announcements for a film already be in the midst of or nearly completing pre-production/casting/scripting/etc.

Also, the announcements for the major crew (costume designer, production designer, etc.) involved with this film just happen to come out with a couple of weeks of each other? That’s too big of a coincidence.

Either way, I’m interested to see how this pans out.

 

[HammerDown]

Something makes me wonder if they’ve already been in the pre-production/scriptwriting phase for longer than we think.

Taika could have been working on Akira concurrently with Jojo Rabbit, since it’s a bit of a smaller production that it wouldn’t be so hard for Taika to also be helping script this film and overseeing preproduction. (The man’s crazy enough to do it. lol) And it’s not unheard of for there to be announcements for a film already be in the midst of or nearly completing pre-production/casting/scripting/etc.

Also, the announcements for the major crew (costume designer, production designer, etc.) involved with this film just happen to come out with a couple of weeks of each other? That’s too big of a coincidence.

Either way, I’m interested to see how this pans out.

I'm pretty sure Taika has been working on Akira for a long time now.
I've seen several interviews of his where he mentioned this particular project... like years ago. I bet they have made a ton of progress already.

For example this was more than a year ago... April 2018.
Taika Waititi Is Still Trying To Get His Head Around Adapting 'Akira' Into A Live-Action Movie

 

[Still Wynning]

I'm pretty sure Taika has been working on Akira for a long time now.
I've seen several interviews of his where he mentioned this particular project... like years ago. I bet they have made a ton of progress already.

For example this was more than a year ago... April 2018.
Taika Waititi Is Still Trying To Get His Head Around Adapting 'Akira' Into A Live-Action Movie

Interestingly enough, from around September or October 2017, there was an interview of him talking about wanting adapt the manga into a film adaptation, which is not too long before Thor Ragnarok came out. Then that becomes a hit, and a few months later, we start getting little trickles of articles or info of him wanting to make the film, stuff related to the film’s production, or the film still being made in general. It’s just too much of a coincidence.

Wondering if we’ll hear info about the project from him in the coming months. I’m really curious to hear more specifics on what his take on and approach to the film will be.

 

[HammerDown]

 

[HammerDown]

Finally watched Akira.
Its something special and unique for sure. It’s one hell of a ride, an intense experience... and I totally get the impact it had back when it came out.

It tackles some pretty insane concepts and it’s approach is balls to the wall crazy and it doesn’t pull any punches. The “post apocalyptic”, cyberpunk and futuristic vibes and settings where the stuff that really captured my imagination. Then there was the whole angle with the biker gangs, the way the society was organized, the super powered stuff...

It’s like Blade Runner + X-Men + Tron + Cyberpunk 2077 + Chronicle...

 

[HammerDown]

It’s also visually stunning and is packed with great details peppered through the whole movie making it feel quite authentic and genuine.

It’s a harsh and unforgiving environment with things being presented in a very raw, unfiltered and visceral manner. Kaneda is the protagonist and the only character that adds some levity to the whole thing. He is cool, engaging, funny and charismatic.

The movie didn’t lost me and when I felt a bit confused things would almost naturally click into place when more was revealed. The very ending is a bit of a mind f*** though.

 

[TheVileOne]

Taika Waititi I believe is making a big mistake here. I still believe Akira is unfilmable in live action.

Ryan K. Potter's casting, well it's not exactly whitewashing per se, but it's not going to score brownie points with the community that was turned the narrative against films like Ghost in the Shell.

 

[terry78]

They're probably going ambiguously Asian like most anime characters usually are. Keanu Reeves type ****.

 

[TheVileOne]

They're probably going ambiguously Asian like most anime characters usually are. Keanu Reeves type ****.

except in most anime that's actually set in Japan characters with Japanese names are born and raised Japanese. They are simply drawn with wide eyes and different colored hair because that's a style that anime goes for and prefers.

 

[terry78]

Yeah I just always found it weird that they only draw Chinese characters more "Asian" as opposed to themselves. I guess it's just deeper than that.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Americans (even Japanese-Americans) on the other hand are almost always depicted with blond hair and blue eyes. Unless they are African-American.

 

[HammerDown]

Taika Waititi I believe is making a big mistake here. I still believe Akira is unfilmable in live action.

I don’t aree with Akira being “unfilmable”, like at all really... The only thing that could be very challenging is maybe replicating that final third act. Then again, this adaptation seems to be taking inspiration from the manga so they might approach that ending differently.

The movie is basically about a biker gang in a futuristic setting with an “underground” layer of government experimentation on humans... the most important aspect should be the human relationship between Kaneda and Tetsuo which has to be well developed, something I felt was kind of rushed in the movie.

Getting a good production/set designer, having strong imagination and be willing to push the boundaries of the visual flair is essencial for this project. Like Blade Runner 2049, a strong use of small scale sets would help pull the trick regarding the setting. Then everything else is about the cinematography and a good use of CGI.

 

[HammerDown]

I think WB should be feeling relatively confident in pulling off the world because of how well it was done in Blade Runner 2049 and even in Mad Max: Fury Road. It’s a matter of using a similar template and adding that Neo-Tokyo/cyberpunk vibe to it.

The themes of human mutation, the true meaning/purpose of Akira and the overall impact on society is definitely a hard thing to tackle but it can be done.

For the most part I was able to follow the movie’s story because the pieces of the puzzle where gradually getting put into place. That final third act is where stuff goes off the rails and made me a bit unsure of certain stuff.

Still I very much enjoyed and appreciated the ride leading to its conclusion. The stronger aspects for me where the world building, the overall raw and unfiltered nature of it.