Warner Bros. Starts Search for Akira's Leading Men

[Logan Westbrook]

Warner Bros. Starts Search for Akira's Leading Men

Magento and Professor X could have parts in the Akira movie, but then again, so could Captain Kirk and Spider-Man.

The Akira movie is inching closer and closer to actually getting made. Following a rewrite from Oscar nominated screenwriter Steve Kloves, who also worked on the Harry Potter movies, Warner Bros. has sent the script out to a shortlist of actors, with the hope of finding the film's leading men among them.

The script apparently has two main parts: Kaneda and Tetsuo. In the original comic and animated versions, the two are members of a teenaged motorcycle gang on the streets of Neo Tokyo. They get embroiled in a decades old conspiracy after an accident activates Tetsuo's dormant - and immensely powerful - psychic abilities. The live-action version has gone through a few changes however, most notably transposing the action from Tokyo to New York. By the look of Warner's shortlist, it seemslike the studio is ditching the "teenaged" part as well, and making the characters much older.

Obviously none of these names have been confirmed yet, but it's thought that the movie's stars are somewhere on this list. For the part of Tetsuo - who is likely to be the movie's antagonist - Warner is looking at Robert Pattinson, Andrew Garfield and James McAvoy. Pattinson is best known for his appearances in the Twilight movies, Garfield is the new Spider-Man, and McAvoy will play a young Professor X later this year in X-Men: First Class.

For the role of Kaneda, the movie's hero, Warner wants Garrett Hedlund, Michael Fassbender, Chris Pine, Justin Timberlake, or Joaquin Phoenix. Hedlund most recently appeared as Sam in Tron: Legacy, and Fassbender will star opposite McAvoy as Magneto in First Class. Chris Pine was the young James Kirk in the new Star Trek, Justin Timberlake was recently in the Oscar-winning movie The Social Network along with Garfield, and Phoenix appeared as the villainous Emperor Commodus in the movie Gladiator.

Warner Bros. plans to make two Akira movies, with each focusing on three volumes of the original comic. Presumably, the character names will get some tweaking before the films are released to make them fit a little better with the new American setting. The project is said to be a high priority for the Warner, and the first movie is scheduled to hit the big screen in 2013.

Source: Deadline [http://www.deadline.com/2011/03/akira-focuses-on-short-list-of-actors-after-getting-steve-kloves-rewrite/]


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[uguito-93]

I'm still not sold on this. It sounds like they are deviating way too much from the source material and its starting to sound like its gonna end up being your typical soulless blockbuster. cant help but get the feeling that i would be nicer too it if they changed the name and said it was unrelated to akira.

 

[Veloxe]

Ok, so it probably won't be that bad. It could be interesting, I would be more worried about how or if they try to translate it over for the average movie goer. I mean, it could be a classic if they do it right, or it could be one of those box office hits that the source materials fanbase hates.

 

[Lt. Vinciti]

Why do we need a live action American bastardized version of Akira?

 

[RA92]

Oh fuck. Another IP Hollywood is going to bastardize...

 

[ZombieGenesis]

Again? This is like the SIXTH time this thread has popped up here.

Not that I'm against an AKIRA remake I press, I would love it even if hollywood has a terrible habit of ruining all the best intellectual property. Even if it was just 'meh' it would be a pleasant experience for an AKIRA fan like myself. (Kind of like Tron I guess)

It's just that they've been promising and hinting for so long now I find it hard to believe anymore. Last I heard (about four years ago) they were already into production, and now they're back into finding actors again?
This is why the internet is such a cockblock sometimes.

"The live-action version has gone through a few changes however, most notably transposing the action from Tokyo to New York. By the look of Warner's shortlist, it seemslike the studio is ditching the "teenaged" part as well, and making the characters much older."

Also, 'Tokyo' and 'Youth' were two words that summarised a lot of the texture of the original. I find it hard to swallow that it will maintain that.

 

[Casual Shinji]

So, is it still going to be called Akira?

'Cause what's the point in calling it Akira if it is devoid of anything Japanese? They might as well call it American Psychic.

 

[titankore]

Please someone stop this I beg you. I normally don't like anonymous but please do whatever you can to kill this off. I can't take another Airbender, Dragonball nightmare. They will treat this with the sensitivity and finesse of the Hulk.

I think there needs to be some kind of group therapy thing for fans who go through horrible remakes and adaptations of their favorite things.

 

[Bribase]

Noooooooooooo!

I'm genuinely hoping that Akira triggers a cosmic rebirth before this goes into production.

 

[DJDarque]

And maybe next they can cast Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci as Kaneda's father and uncle respectively. Oh wait, that's the Uncharted movie. Dammit Hollywood, stop deviating too far from your source material.

 

[The Great JT]

The live-action version has gone through a few changes however, most notably transposing the action from Tokyo to New York.

Why would you do that?! Is that nessecary? Oh, wait, earthquake. Gee, now I feel like an asshole...

 

[The Salty Vulcan]

You know what, I'm going to at least give this film a chance! God! Its not like a live action film, let alone an American one (oh my, not New York!) is going to ruin the anime or the manga for you for Christ's sake. Theres being a purist and then there's just being an ass about it. Watchmen I could understand. How the story was told was more important than the story proper, so making a film based on it was far more challenging. Akira on the other hand practically lends itself to a cinematic treatment!

Alls I'm saying is, just keep an open mind about it. Whats a name anyways? Geez.

Now back to the casting choices. Yeah some good names here. Personally I like Elijah Woods for Testuo and Chris Pine for Kaneda.

 

[tahrey]

Oh God ... I thought this was going to turn out badly when I first read about the details of it more than a year ago now...

this update ... ugh ... I feel a bit sick.

1. It's still in New York. OH FFS I'M SICK OF THAT CITY (and Toronto, to boot) can't we actually have something set elsewhere (and also: not LA either) that isn't a Bourne or Bond? What the hell was wrong with Neo-Tokyo? It's supposed to be somewhat audience-alienating unfamiliar post-apocalypse-and-rebuild future-city anyway. May as well go the whole hog.

2. Pattinson vs Timberlake as the potential leads that face off each other, with the Harry Potter screenwriter coming up with what they say and do? GET. THE. FUCK. OUT. and don't come back, Warner.

Christ. Why not change the name of the film whilst you're at it. All we need to do is remove the bikes (hardly anyone rides bikes, too hard to identify with, and once tron's done no-one will be that interested...) and the uncontrollable psychic mutation (which will probably be cut as the focus groups will be too squeamish for its desired PG13 rating at the test screenings) and it won't actually BE Akira any more.

I wouldn't normally engage in such gun-jumping unhatched chicken-counting, or even rampant fanboyism (it's one of the better examples of the genre, but I don't cream my jeans at the prospect of watching/reading it...), but everything about this is starting to scream "turkey" and "downward spiral".

Disney would make a better go of it at this rate.

 

[[zonking great]]

Who's Magento?

Also, if Happy Harry is responsible for this reboot, there will be BLOOD!

 

[Kevlar Eater]

Seeing all the choices of leading men, I have to say I'm really getting tired of all the Dawson Casting [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DawsonCasting]. I personally would like to see this idea scrapped, but I know that isn't gonna happen.

 

[tahrey]

You know what, I'm going to at least give this film a chance! God! Its not like a live action film, let alone an American one (oh my, not New York!) is going to ruin the anime or the manga for you for Christ's sake. Theres being a purist and then there's just being an ass about it. Watchmen I could understand.

So it's not an important issue just because it's not your chosen favourite Alan Moore property? Way to not "be an ass about it". Oh well, it's only anime, who cares.

We do, asshole.

All I can do is point to Transformers (and a hundred titles like it). That was itself a remake of some cheap kids toy line thing, but Bay managed to make a travesty of it. And the Dragonball and Avatar films were horrific as well. This is a solid cult classic which deserves better, but is likely to actually get worse. There's no respect being given to the source material at any point, which begs the question why they bother to associate with it in the first place. Answer: they're trading off the name, and the shell of the plot gives them an easy readymade story to throw a cruddy script around, without having to expend much extra effort. Which is indicative of what the quality of the whole thing will be.

Crappy, careless, cash-in remakes will be the death of cinema. We've seen already that not even hitchcock is safe. If it gets panned as badly and universally as I believe it will (if it's ever made), I sure won't be paying to see it in the theatre or on rented DVD. Might torrent it just to skim... that's about all. I mean, they really don't seem to care about what they're doing, I don't see why I should care about their profits, or even continued existence.

Also ... the name "Akira" only sounds exotic because it's Japanese - same as Tetsuo and Kaneda. Taking the thing out of the Japanese setting immediately makes the whole thing absurd. It's just a regular boy's name. If it's to be set in America, they need to rename everything, including the film. It would be called "John", or "Stephen", or ... well, take your pick. The leads will be called Dave and Peter. If it was moved to Madrid by a Spanish director you may expect it to be called Miguel. Why the hell are regular White Folks (suppose it was too hard to find any asian-american actors?) suddenly giving all their kids oriental names, and the government - utterly coincidentally - attaching similar codenames to their top secret research projects?

 

[todlambe]

*rolling up newspaper*
BAD HOLLYWOOD!
BAD!
NO!
PUT IT DOWN!
DOWN!

 

[Outlaw Torn]

I'm guessing that instead of being a motorcycle gang, they will be disgruntled McDonalds employees; Tetsuo will get psychic powers after drinking a Starbucks coffee that is too hot; and Kaneda will resolve everything by sueing everyone, using the money to buy everyone a cheeseburger. They might as well just show a loop of an American flag tea-bagging the original comic/film for a few hours.

It definately screams 'futile cash-in' rather than 'worthwhile endeavour'. If I had the choice between paying to see this or buying the original Akira DVD, I'd go with the DVD even if it was twice the price.

 

[Ekonk]

NO! NO! NO, Warner Bros! You don't have to do this! Just walk away now! Just cancel the project and walk away!