Rumor: Morgan Freeman Joining Zac Efron for Akira Adaptation

[DTWolfwood]

It makes more sense than Zac Efron as a tough biker gang leader, anyway. Nothing against the guy - he's actually a pretty decent actor - but nothing about that face strikes me as "tough." Light in an adaptation of Death Note? Sure. Kaneda in Akira? No, not so much.

Well to be fair no1 really has the scrunch faces that the characters of Akira has, therefore hard to cast look a likes XD. And yes i can see him as Light Yagami too

 

[headphonegirl]

Morgan Freeman i'm ok with, the guys awesome.

But Zac Efron, god no, the guy sucks as an actor.

 

[EmzOLV]

Zac Efron...
Really? REALLY?!

Oh man. One of the greatest films ever is about to be turned into utter poo.
I drop my head in dispair.

But Morgan Freeman is pretty awesome

 

[Delusibeta]

While I wouldn't object to Morgan Freeman being casted (he was pretty good in Red), it still doesn't stop it being a western live-action adaption of an anime, ergo I'm going to assume it's crap.

Also it must be rated R.

I'm getting a nagging feeling it won't be. And the film will suck because of it.

Yes. This movie must have soldiers get crushed into paste by psychic powers or it will loose something special.

Pipe dream, most likely. Warner has stated they're aiming for a PG-13.

 

[TwistedEllipses]

This confirms my suspicions that these rumours are false...they'll keep adding names on the same site, until someone calls them out...

 

[Richioso]

What's an adaption?

 

[Necromancer1991]

.....A remake of Akira...I see what's coming

 

[Wintermoot]

look I dont want to be racist but its a JAPANESE comic/movie set in JAPAN with JAPANESE CHARACTHERS, WHY THE HELL IS HOLLYWOOD CASTING PRETTY MUCH EVERY NON-ASIAN ACTOR?! it wont suprise me a bit if the next piece of news is about casting Hannah Montana or Justin Beaver for it

 

[snow]

D:

People told me I looked like Light from Death Note, if Effron were to ever play that role, I would so be getting a nose job or something.

 

[Sinclair Solutions]

Sometimes I wish Hollywood actually watched the source material instead of making moves that would make them the most money. It may not be good business sense in the short run, but it makes a better movie, which gets critical acclaim and gets more money in the long run.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

"If there is any one anime that people who don't watch anime know the name of, it's Katsuhiro Otomo's 1988 movie Akira."

Fairly sure that title belongs to Dragon Ball or Pokemon, in the US at least.

Anyways, makes me wonder how Dragonball: evolution would have been with Morgon Freeman as Master roshi...

Okay, somone remake that thing. NOW.

 

[The Youth Counselor]

Goddamn it Hollywood, you just don't get it. I think Morgan Freeman is a legend, but I still say this is a terrible choice. Zac Efron too, and not simply because he was the douchebag in High School Musical. Pay attention, Hollywood, I'm going to say something important:

Akira is a Japanese story. About Japanese characters. Living in a cyberpunk, sci-fi-esque, but most importantly, a Japanese society and culture. That's the reason the Colonel exists in the film in the first place. He's an old-school Japanese soldier who believes in honour and duty: not just in a wishy-washy way either, but in a hard-as-nails righteous samurai kind of way. And he's railing against the decadence and hedonism which has taken over society- a hedonism strongly reminiscent of Western lifestyles, in fact.

Setting Akira anywhere outside Japan isn't just mis-guided, it's actualy downright insulting. A story isn't just a sequence of random events. It's informed by the setting and the context within which the events take place. All Hollywood are proving is that they think they can take a rectangular block (a pretty mind-boggling, brilliantly animated rectangular block) and shove it in a circular hole labelled "Neo-Manhatten". If you shove that rectangular block hard enough, maybe you'll get it through the hole, but you're sure going to lose a lot of that block's edge.

Finely spoken.

 

[McNinja]

I hope they get such a rag-tag group of actors for this that everyone believes will make NO sense whatsoever on paper but in execution will absolutely blow everyone away. Also it must be rated R. Morgan Freeman is fantastic with no limits on what he can say/do.

It better be R. If it's rated anything less I won't see it. Although I feel like some head of something is going to want it PG-13 to appeal to a larger audience.