According to a new report from Den of Geek, Christopher Nolan ? director of The Dark Knight trilogy and Interstellar ? may be attached to take the reins on Warner Bros. planned Akira trilogy. Allegedly, Nolan met with an unnamed director, who was previously attached to the production, to discuss the project for the past few months. The report maintains that DiCaprio?s Appian Way is still producing, with the aforementioned Ramirez still on board to pen the latest draft of the script.
Pretty much this. Nolan is massively overrated to be frank, and he has an over-reliance on odd narrative structures which don't work more often then not. If he's making it, then it'll end up being an amazingly good looking piece of nonsense.
Though I also question how the hell Akira is supposed to be made into a movie. It failed narratively and financially the last time it was tried, mainly because turning a phonebook-sized manga into a 2 hour movie does not work. Sure, it makes sense that it would get a Western adaptation before anyone back in Japan did one (it's virtually forgotten there, while here it's a staple of the medium) but unless they're planning on making it a series of movies I really have no idea how they're supposed to make the story work. There's just too much that's reliant on characters and subplots to remove enough of the story to make a 2 or 3 hour excursion have cohesion. It's like Watchmen, you'd need at least 4 and a half hours to make the story work even IF you removed all the fat and cut it down to the bone.
Edit: well, looking over the article, seems that the idea is for a trilogy. That might actually work, though I'm still putting my skeptisism level as "believe it when I see it".
At least give it to George Miller, for Christ's sake.
And even then, it's one of the most Japanese fucking manga/anime ever made -How the hell are they going to adapt that to American audiences without just making a completely different movie? Will it take place in Japan? Probably not. Will it star Japanese actors? I highly doubt it. Will the characters even have their Japanese names. Yeah, right... And the whole thing is about post-WW2 Japan. How do they think they can possibly make this work and still present it as Akira?
Just try your hand at Ghost in the Shell or something. At least that's not as tied to a nation's traumatic history.
At least give it to George Miller, for Christ's sake.
And even then, it's one of the most Japanese fucking manga/anime ever made -How the hell are they going to adapt that to American audiences without just making a completely different movie? Will it take place in Japan? Probably not. Will it star Japanese actors? I highly doubt it. Will the characters even have their Japanese names. Yeah, right... And the whole thing is about post-WW2 Japan. How do they think they can possibly make this work and still present it as Akira?
Just try your hand at Ghost in the Shell or something. At least that's not as tied to a nation's traumatic history.
No. No no no no. Christopher Nolan is a fine director and the apocalyptic vibes of The Dark Knight Rises would fit well with Akira's tone, but a Western live-action adaptation of a manga is just such a bad idea. Akira is one of my favourite films and that's purely down to the animation, which for anime standards is amazing. The tone is clearly rooted in 80s cyberpunk, something that'd be very difficult for a modern film to replicate. So difficult in fact, that I doubt there'd be much effort to even do it in the first place.
Casual Shinji said:
At least give it to George Miller, for Christ's sake.
I'd rather if Miller continued to pump out Mad Max films. There's so much potential in the franchise that's already one of my favourite series of films ever. I want new stories, new characters, new settings. Not a regurgitation of something else.
Honestly though, I want someone like McG to direct. I'd rather an abominable mess that's fun to laugh at (like The Last Airbender) than something that had a lot of effort put into it but is ultimately a pointless endeavour.
I can dig it. I like Nolan. Don't know about the trilogy thing, though.
At this point I just want them to do it and get it over with already. I've been hearing about this thing for almost a decade now. Whether it ends up being good or not, I just want them to do it so people can shut up about it. If it ends up good, that would be awesome, and even if it ends up bad I don't think it's gonna ruin the original or make people think less of it. If Avatar can survive The Last Airbender and Dragon Ball with Evolution, I'm sure Akira will come out of it just fine.
With that said, though, I don't really have the deep love for the original film as everyone else does. I just liked it as a sci-fi action thriller, and that's all I hope out of a live-action film.
Ugh. I don't want this to happen. Akira is a fine manga the way it is. It doesn't need to be adapted. Like Sephiroth and Frieza, it has already reached its ultimate form.
There has been an Akira movie, in 1988. It was about as good as any Akira movie can reasonably be expected to be - in no small part because Otomo himself was directly involved - and still didn't do the manga justice.
Well, since he's always given grief for "making things gritty", it would work pretty well for Akira. It's already gritty and grimdark, so he wouldn't offend any of the diehard fans out there by doing that.
I would like for the cast to be mostly Asian at least, assuming they keep the story centered in Japan like the original work.
Well, since he's always given grief for "making things gritty", it would work pretty well for Akira. It's already gritty and grimdark, so he wouldn't offend any of the diehard fans out there by doing that.
Both the manga and the movie are actually really colourful and extravagant, which are two words that don't exist in Nolan's vocabulary. Again, I'd point to George Miller who knows how to make hyper violent and brutal, yet colourful post-apocalyptic settings. Heck, Doof Warrior from Fury Road already shares a bit of visual similarity with Bird Man from the manga.
Well, since he's always given grief for "making things gritty", it would work pretty well for Akira. It's already gritty and grimdark, so he wouldn't offend any of the diehard fans out there by doing that.
Both the manga and the movie are actually really colourful and extravagant, which are two words that don't exist in Nolan's vocabulary. Again, I'd point to George Miller who knows how to make hyper violent and brutal, yet colourful post-apocalyptic settings. Heck, Doof Warrior from Fury Road already shares a bit of visual similarity with Bird Man from the manga.
Oh, I don't know, I thought Nolan's adaptation of Paprika was at least bearable, even if it lost all the warmth and heart of the original.
But seriously, if this must be made, I'd rather have Nolan involved then that french ass-hat they had before. Nolan's very hit and miss, but when he hits, he's a pretty spectacular director. Interstellar really impressed me. Personally, I actually think Guillermo Del Torro would be a good fit for this. He's got a unique visual style, and we know that he can handle intelligent material from his work on Pans Labyrinth. Hell, I think even Zach Snyder would be a good choice, as long as there's a strong screen writer that can keep him from doing something stupid. Trippy visuals and destruction porn is sort of his thing. Plus, they're both obviously anime fanboys.
Well, since he's always given grief for "making things gritty", it would work pretty well for Akira. It's already gritty and grimdark, so he wouldn't offend any of the diehard fans out there by doing that.
Both the manga and the movie are actually really colourful and extravagant, which are two words that don't exist in Nolan's vocabulary. Again, I'd point to George Miller who knows how to make hyper violent and brutal, yet colourful post-apocalyptic settings. Heck, Doof Warrior from Fury Road already shares a bit of visual similarity with Bird Man from the manga.
I've read the manga and seen the film, and being "colorful and extravagant" isn't mutually exclusive from being grim and gritty. The teenage kids we are introduced to as the "wild kids", openly engage in drug use, murder (because seriously, if you are riding a motorcycle at 45+mph, and hit someone in the face with a led pipe, they're dead), vandalism, theft, etc. There is also a depiction of rape in the first portion of the movie. There is civil unrest, civilian uprising as they feel it is literally the end of the world, and their savior has returned. Rioting in the streets, police action to restrain the uprising, including the use of tanks and assault rifles. There is depiction of government genetic experimentation on children to try and develop super soldiers. There are depictions of urban decay and destruction as the city literally collapses around the combatants, and what amounts to a nuclear explosion in the center of a heavily populated area.
I fail to see how those elements don't add up to "gritty and grimdark", 'cause that's some dark shit going on. Sure it's colorful, sure there are moments of comedy in it, that's just basic storytelling. But the story itself is gritty as hell.
Well, since he's always given grief for "making things gritty", it would work pretty well for Akira. It's already gritty and grimdark, so he wouldn't offend any of the diehard fans out there by doing that.
Both the manga and the movie are actually really colourful and extravagant, which are two words that don't exist in Nolan's vocabulary. Again, I'd point to George Miller who knows how to make hyper violent and brutal, yet colourful post-apocalyptic settings. Heck, Doof Warrior from Fury Road already shares a bit of visual similarity with Bird Man from the manga.
I've read the manga and seen the film, and being "colorful and extravagant" isn't mutually exclusive from being grim and gritty. The teenage kids we are introduced to as the "wild kids", openly engage in drug use, murder (because seriously, if you are riding a motorcycle at 45+mph, and hit someone in the face with a led pipe, they're dead), vandalism, theft, etc. There is also a depiction of rape in the first portion of the movie. There is civil unrest, civilian uprising as they feel it is literally the end of the world, and their savior has returned. Rioting in the streets, police action to restrain the uprising, including the use of tanks and assault rifles. There is depiction of government genetic experimentation on children to try and develop super soldiers. There are depictions of urban decay and destruction as the city literally collapses around the combatants, and what amounts to a nuclear explosion in the center of a heavily populated area.
I fail to see how those elements don't add up to "gritty and grimdark", 'cause that's some dark shit going on. Sure it's colorful, sure there are moments of comedy in it, that's just basic storytelling. But the story itself is gritty as hell.
The compliant is that Nolan is unable to make a visually vibrant world, not that he couldn't get the tone of the manga down. The set pieces are bright, but the setting is pitch black - Nolan does one of those well.
I never read the manga, just watched the anime and loved it. Honestly, I'm worried about the ending - I don't know how that final fight is going to look with real people and CGI. I'm also nervous about Nolan - I love him as a director, but I'm unsure how well he'll do on something like this.
Well, since he's always given grief for "making things gritty", it would work pretty well for Akira. It's already gritty and grimdark, so he wouldn't offend any of the diehard fans out there by doing that.
Both the manga and the movie are actually really colourful and extravagant, which are two words that don't exist in Nolan's vocabulary. Again, I'd point to George Miller who knows how to make hyper violent and brutal, yet colourful post-apocalyptic settings. Heck, Doof Warrior from Fury Road already shares a bit of visual similarity with Bird Man from the manga.
I've read the manga and seen the film, and being "colorful and extravagant" isn't mutually exclusive from being grim and gritty. The teenage kids we are introduced to as the "wild kids", openly engage in drug use, murder (because seriously, if you are riding a motorcycle at 45+mph, and hit someone in the face with a led pipe, they're dead), vandalism, theft, etc. There is also a depiction of rape in the first portion of the movie. There is civil unrest, civilian uprising as they feel it is literally the end of the world, and their savior has returned. Rioting in the streets, police action to restrain the uprising, including the use of tanks and assault rifles. There is depiction of government genetic experimentation on children to try and develop super soldiers. There are depictions of urban decay and destruction as the city literally collapses around the combatants, and what amounts to a nuclear explosion in the center of a heavily populated area.
I fail to see how those elements don't add up to "gritty and grimdark", 'cause that's some dark shit going on. Sure it's colorful, sure there are moments of comedy in it, that's just basic storytelling. But the story itself is gritty as hell.
The compliant is that Nolan is unable to make a visually vibrant world, not that he couldn't get the tone of the manga down. The set pieces are bright, but the setting is pitch black - Nolan does one of those well.
I never read the manga, just watched the anime and loved it. Honestly, I'm worried about the ending - I don't know how that final fight is going to look with real people and CGI. I'm also nervous about Nolan - I love him as a director, but I'm unsure how well he'll do on something like this.
Inception was quite colorful and bright, people seem to forget that. I think people are assuming he can't use colors because we mostly know him for the Dark Knight series, which yes, had a dirty, dark theme. But that's the Dark Knight, not everything he's done. As for the manga, I admit it's been a while since I've read them, and I didn't find them all that amazing, but they were in black and white, so all the "brightness" of Akira is strictly an element of the movie. Assuming the story is kept in Japan, and they actually film in Japan, I think it's going to be bright, simply by the fact that Tokyo is a neon nirvana, and it would simply show up by the fact of where they are filming. If they do the whole thing in the US, on fabricated sets, then yeah, they might forget to add color. But Nolan is a skilled visual storyteller, and I for one think he could do the story well.
My only worry is if they whitewash the cast, which while not a complete deal breaker for me, as I've said many times that I feel getting the right actor for the job is more important than getting the right ethnicity for the job. I would like to have the material be accurate to the source. If the movie is all white actors, and it's in like Los Angeles or something, I'm going to be annoyed, but it won't make me instantly hate the movie.
As to the concern about the ending, yeah I can see how it would be tricky. But on a purely technical front, I don't think it would be that difficult to pull off. CGI these days are really good at showing us massive threats on scale to a city. And when the shot is tightened down to just the people, you can have that stuff off camera. What I'm mostly worried about is if they try to clean the ending up a bit to have it "make more sense".
My only worry is if they whitewash the cast, which while not a complete deal breaker for me, as I've said many times that I feel getting the right actor for the job is more important than getting the right ethnicity for the job. I would like to have the material be accurate to the source. If the movie is all white actors, and it's in like Los Angeles or something, I'm going to be annoyed, but it won't make me instantly hate the movie.
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