Live Action Akira coming in '09

[Joker]

I'm certainly not gonna argue that special effects produced from within the States is inferior to those from other countries. What I am saying is that some foreign movies can create CGI shots that are akin to those in bigger budgets movies with only a fraction of the budget.
Nightwatch was made with 4.2 million dollars after all and you can't honestly say that the effects there are vastly inferior to most Hollywood blockbusters.
I could discuss more about this but we should open another thread if we want to .

On topic. Yeaaah, Akira, live-action. Any ideas on what things will be changed to make it more accessible to the general audience?

 

[trancejeremy]

I've watched a lot of foreign films, and while I can definitely say there was a gap between production values, that gap has pretty much been closed in the last few years.

 

[Joker]

I've watched a lot of foreign films, and while I can definitely say there was a gap between production values, that gap has pretty much been closed in the last few years.

Point in case, and I was just reading this on wikipedia. Apparently the Host was made only 10 million dollars. The creature and animatronics were done by Weta (Lotr) and CGI was done by the Orphanage which did the effects of the Day after tomorrow.
If you've seen the Host you might feel like I do when I think it's one of the most beautifully animated creatures aside from Gollum and King Kong. But they had magicians work on Gollum so that's not really fair.

What? Did I hijack again? My bad. I'll go now.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Akira is not a great example for this argument.

I agree. Akira could be done very well as a live action movie with today's CGI.

Akira's plot, however, is a whole other issue. That is going to get completely reworked and, I predict, bear no resemblance to either the Manga, the original release movie, or the re-translated special edition.

 

[Rackhir]

Akira's plot, however, is a whole other issue. That is going to get completely reworked and, I predict, bear no resemblance to either the Manga, the original release movie, or the re-translated special edition.

My suspicion is that DiCaprio is a fan of the material (his production company is backing the production) and that they are going to try to make a decent adaptation. I don't see why they would bother doing a two movie version of it, if they weren't going to try and stick close to the original material. I mean the animated Akira is widely considered a classic and while moderately long (124 min), it isn't even close to the length of one of the LotR EEs. Not to mention it leaves out huge chunks of the story (of course the managa hadn't been finished at the time the movie was made).

Whether or not it's going to wind up being a good movie is another question. Competent, skilled directors and casts who loved the material have made plenty of bad and flawed movies, but I doubt they're going to screw with the material too much.

Beside if nothing else a live action movie, damm well better lead to someone finally making an actual motorcycle of Kaneda's bike from the story.

I'd KILL for one of those...

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Beside if nothing else a live action movie, damm well better lead to someone finally making an actual motorcycle of Kaneda's bike from the story.

I'd KILL for one of those...

I may love Akira...but, honestly, give me an awesome reproduction of Kaneda's bike, do those great bike scenes and I'll be happy.

The story is great and fun, but that's the essence of what I want. I'm easy.

 

[Mark]

Akira is not a great example for this argument. One of it's defining characteristics was it's live action like attention to detail and "realisim" in depicting things.

I've seen tofu turkey shaped like pictures of turkey, too. Adding motion to the artwork is one thing, live-action is something else entirely, IMO.