Remember Kaneda’s bike from Akira? Remember how you wished a bike like that was real, and that you could see it with your very own eyes? Today is your lucky day, Dear Reader, and it is all for a good cause.
Category Archives: Akira
FAN FILM: Akira
We know that the Warner Bros. adaptation of Akira is stalled for the time being, but that hasn’t stopped fans from coming up with their own interpretation and releasing it for the world to see.
MOVIES: Live action Akira movie put on hold
Even though actors have been cast and early work on the film has started, Warner Bros. pulled the plug in Vancouver yesterday and told nearly everyone working on the live action Akira movie to go home.
MOVIES: Who is being considered for live action Akira?
Set in Neo-Tokyo, Akira is the bizarre tale of children with telekinetic powers and those who want to control them. With the live action remake given the greenlight, the next big question is, “Who will be cast in the film?”
MOVIES: Akira gets the greenlight
Variety is reporting that the on again, off again production of Akira is finally getting the greenlight and will move ahead as a full length feature film from Warner Bros.
MOVIE: Akira not dead, Director found
While many thought Warner Bros. attempt at making Akira had been shuttered after the mostly white cast turned people off, Variety is reporting that the studio ha found a director in Jaume Collet-Serra.
Set in New Manhattan, story follows the leader of a biker gang who saves his friend from a medical experiment.
Well, I guess that explains the mostly white cast…
Collet-Serra is a fairly hot director in H’wood, as his track record has his movies making far more than the initial budget. “Unknown”, starring Liam Neeson brought in $130 million worldwide on an estimated $30 million budget.
PHOTO PARADE: Heroes Convention Charlotte 2011
This past weekend, the 29th annual Heroes Convention was held in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was lucky enough to attend, and boy am I tired of hoofing it. When I was not jibber jabbering to comic creators, and getting off the elevator on the wrong floor. I DID snap some pictures, so take the jump Spoilerites to see what you missed!
MOVIE: Akira actor shortlist uncovered
Deadline has discovered the short list of actors who are up for the roles of Kaneda and Tetsuo in Warner Bros. live action adaptation of Akira. According to the site, Robert Pattinson, Andrew Garfield and James McAvoy are being considered for Tetsuo (the “bad” guy), while Garrett Hedlund, Michael Fassbender, Chris Pine, Justin Timberlake and Joaquin Phoenix have been handed the script to play Kaneda (the “good” guy).
This is a project that has been in production for some time, it was first announced back in 2008. The film has done the on-again-off-again dance so many times, that one wonders if we’ll ever see it move out of Pre-Pro Hell into actual production.
Live action Akira a no go
Bloody Disgusting is reporting that the Leonardo DiCaprio produced live action version of Akira has died a slow death in Pre-Pro Hell.
“Akira” originated in 1988 as a manga and then as an animated film co-written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo. The story was set in a neon-lit futuristic post-nuclear war “New Tokyo” in 2019 where a teen biker gang member is subjected to a government experiment which unleashes his latent powers. The gang’s leader must find a way to stop the ensuing swathe of destruction.
The film was to be a two-part film of epic proportions, but unless Warner Bros. and Appian Way can get their act together, don’t expect to see this tale appear on the screen anytime soon.
American Akira
Yes, Leonardo DiCaprio is making Akira, but thankfully it will look nothing like this.
Akira Getting Live Action Treatment
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Leonardo DiCaprio and Warner Bros. are teaming up to bring Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira to the screen as a live action adaptation. No word if DiCaprio will be screaming Kanada! or not, but as one would expect with the translation, things are going to be changed, for what I fear will be the worst.
The new story moves the action to “New Manhattan,” a city rebuilt by Japanese money.
Yikes! There’s a red flag right there.
On the plus side, the film will mark the directorial debut of Ruairi Robinson, who has been hired to direct what looks to be a two-part feature. Robinson is the genius mind behind the OSCAR nominated short subject animated film “Fifty Percent Grey”.
The film is scheduled to hit theaters next year (2009).
I have a feeling this subject is going to be even touchier than the speculation that surrounded the cast of the now defunct JLA movie, so let the battle begin in the comment section, or over in the Major Spoilers Movie Forum.