Poll: Akira Remake...What is wrong with that phrase?

[Bobbity]

The live action version is being moved from Tokyo to New York. The characters are being changed to white characters and Robert Pattinson and Zac Efron are on the shortlist and in negotiations to play in a lead role. I'm not joking I'm entirely serious. Regardless of who is cast, Tetsuo is becoming 'Travis' and Kaneda is now 'Kevin', and I will reiterate I am not joking. Apparently, many of the darker themes of the original are being thrown out and rewritten to give it a PG-13 rating as well by the writers and crew who brought you the Book of Eli.

Awww fuck, I can see this having almost the same effect as the Qur'an burning did.
Jokes aside, why can't Hollywood keep their grubby mitts off anything? At the very least, they could try to be true to the original...

And there's no fucking way I'd even consider seeing this.

 

[Palademon]

Now, an American Gundam or Haruhi ripoff I would love to see, if only for the inadvertently hilariously bad dialogue.

I'd certainly find that amusing.

 

[iblis666]

while the original story could have done with a little cleaning up and revamping this is beyond the top i guess i could have gotten over it being pg 13 or Americanized but not both

 

[jackknife402]

Not that I really care about it, I just wanna say this. What's wrong with that phrase....is the word REMAKE. What, people run out of ideas? Can't come up with something of their own so they gotta remake stuff that's already been done? I get tired of it...everyone's doing remakes lately and it's pissing me off. Hell half the time they botch the original script and the movies are only good cuz of their TOTALLY AWESOME CGI GRAPHICS AND SHIT"

 

[MaxRaine]

While I don't really think the original Akira movie is worth all the hype, it's an ok movie at best and very confusing if you happen to miss like one line, I'm still against this remake.

Very, very few mangas or manga based movies could ever be properly remade by Hollywood. Mainly because they're so over the top in many areas. To use Akira as an example, the can't really make it justice without the over the top gore, people need to be squashed all over the walls by Tetsuo to really grasp at his insanity and power and there's just no way Hollywood is gonna do that, least of all with a PG-13 rating... Perhaps if they made it into a M rated sci-fi horror movie it could work but I doubt it.

 

[Azure Sky]

Will I see it?
Short answer, no.
Long answer, noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Seriously, from what I have heard, they are changing the characters, the plot, and the location.

This isn't Akira.

 

[Gottesstrafe]

Now, an American Gundam or Haruhi ripoff I would love to see, if only for the inadvertently hilariously bad dialogue.

I'd certainly find that amusing.

Actually, I'm surprised that Michael Bay hadn't already jumped at the chance to do a Gundam movie. The earlier series in particular are almost formulaic Bay movies. Hell, It'd probably be a better adaptation than Transformers, and it'd even make sense to dwell on the human characters in a franchise devoted to giant robots (not to mention give plenty of opportunities for Shia LaBeouf to be killed off).

 

[BonsaiK]

To be honest the original was sloppily paced, poorly written and an hour too long. There's a good chance a remake might improve on it.

Compared to the manga, akira the animation is somewhat lightweight and a little confusing. Its a story that doesent especially fit into movie format. If the creators of the anime were ultimately unsuccessful I somehow doubt a pg-13 movie with zac effron can pull it off!

Nontheless for people of my generation, Akira introduced us to anime amd helped make japanese animation popular in the west. So for fans of a certain age bracket late twenties-late thirties, akira is a pretty important film nontheless. If there was an announcement of a 51 epsiode 'remake' done as a full series with modern animation I could probably buy in to that, but this just sounds like it'll be a westernised bastardised copy of the animation. If i'm wrong then great but somehow I doubt it. Either way i'll wait for it on dvd. I still remember the live action dragonball (shudder)

As a side note, I think everyones getting more than a little fed up of remakes in general, its becoming far to frequent to hear about yet another classic film or series getting a makeover. Hollywood is looking like a trapped and starving dog thats begun to eat its own leg in order to survive.

I'm old enough to have seen Akira in its original theatrical release. I wasn't impressed back then and time hasn't really changed that.

Hollywood is likely to make Akira:

* Shorter (a good thing)
* Less pretentiously inscrutable (a good thing)
* Better paced (a very good thing)

I really can't see any downsides, at least on paper. Of course, it's Hollywood, so they probably will find some way to fuck it up anyway, but on the surface, this has potential. At least Hollywood is remaking something that was quite flawed in its original incarnation (and thus has plenty of room for improvement), rather than remaking a genuine "classic" that can't be improved upon which is what they usually do, and if there's one film that sure as hell isn't a "classic" on any level, it's Akira. It's only notable because it's the first film of it's kind that reached the mass-consciousness of the west, and for no other reason. I say hack it to pieces, change it as much as possible and maybe something good will come of it. Sticking closely to the source material in this case would be a huge error. Hell, maybe even give it a different name, just to throw the whiny fanboys off the scent.

 

[darthmocha]

I just did a little research and found this clip from the REELZ Channel that was about Anime remakes from 2007. Be prepared to either be excited or horrified.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_DarhYERwI&NR=1&feature=fvwp

 

[Snake Plissken]

What is wrong with the phrase "Akira remake"?

Akira, that's what. Akira is lame. Waaaaaay lamer than remakes.

 

[kurokenshi]

Are we talking about anime remake or the hideous Hollywood movie?

If it's the latter then HELLS NOOOOOOO!

I read the manga and that was so much better than the movie. The movie just didn't do the manga justice(as is always the case). If they remake it they should make inline with the manga.

 

[Wintermoot]

FUCK NO! one of the reasons Akira worked was due to the Japanese Cyberpunk setting.
its like setting a western in Feudal Japan, you CAN do it but it would suck

 

[Nico4]

Bloody Hollywood -.- Why must they ruin everything! D:

 

[Starke]

So recently a friend of mine from college forwarded me some information on a live action, big budget remake of Akira. Yes, Akira, the most classic of anime films that summed up the genre for an entire generation that is not just a masterpiece of animation, but writing as well. It introduced many people to a world where cartoons could be visceral, gritty, and evoke the same emotions as a live action film. So, what is wrong here? In a word everything.

The live action version is being moved from Tokyo to New York. The characters are being changed to white characters and Robert Pattinson and Zac Efron are on the shortlist and in negotiations to play in a lead role. I'm not joking I'm entirely serious. Regardless of who is cast, Tetsuo is becoming 'Travis' and Kaneda is now 'Kevin', and I will reiterate I am not joking. Apparently, many of the darker themes of the original are being thrown out and rewritten to give it a PG-13 rating as well by the writers and crew who brought you the Book of Eli. It is slated by IMDB to have a 2013 release date.

So what does everyone think about this? Are you as horrified and mildly disgusted as I am?

Honestly, I was never a fan of Akira to begin with. I never cared enough to dig into the phonebook manga, and the Anime struck me, honestly, as a jumbled mess.

The only defense I can offer is, they did remake Yojimbo with Bruce Willis in 1920s Texas and it was actually pretty decent. It is very dependent on the quality of the production though, and I'm not expecting another Last Man Standing out of this (apparent) train wreck.

 

[Bat Vader]

If they are going to completely change and remove stuff than what is the point of even calling it Akira? Why change the name of the two main characters? That would be like if Peter Jackson changed the name of Frodo to Fred. Why live action? That is just going to push fans of the original Akira away even more.

 

[Zoe Castillo]

[---

 

[legopelle]

I have no issues with a western cast (any remotely caricaturizised human defaults to Caucasian for me) , and westernizing names is better than awkward pronunciation in my mind. The evangelion rebuild shortened the runtime and fastened the pace. And it worked out very well, Akira would definitely benefit from the same treatment.

With this budget I understand they cannot do anything over PG-13, but I don't like it. It's not impossible to convey the central message without violence (since it's not directly connected with it), but neither is it easy. If they manage to keep the tone dark and includes the nightmare-ish subtexts of child imprisonment and experimentation, as well as the downright mental rape of having god-like powers you can't control, then I'm in.

tl;dr make it dark, violence or not

EDIT: Genuine Evil, you beat me to it.

 

[Lucifron]

So what does everyone think about this? Are you as horrified and mildly disgusted as I am?

Yes, though not as much as I am about the Live Action Cowboy Bebop remake starring Keanu Reeves as spike.

Now, please excuse me. Writing this has made me both sad and nauseous, and I have crawl into a fetal-position in the nearest dark corner to silently weep for the next hour.

 

[Mathak]

Definitely not. This sounds worse than The Last Airbender, and that was the only movie that genuinely made me rage watching it.

Also, 10 bucks there'll be 'subtle' 9/11 allusions.

 

[Akyho]

yup. and this little video sprang to mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jafd97yJFOI

And yet even it is further from the truth.

Lets not remind ourselfs of the Dragon ball movie. Failed so bad it wasnt even a passable movie. Let alone a passable adaption.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XVESObcRdA

Ok now guys keep your food down, i know its hard. This is an seriousely true attempt at a Gundam cartoon serise by america in the 90s. I went unaired as this teaser never impressed and youll see why. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8um1N78AhY


And you thought that this was just a realy stupid spoof. The watchmen saturday morning cartoon spoof. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w

America will realy do this. its scarey what happens.