Jalopnik
Titanic star Leonardo DiCaprio is set to both act in and produce a live-action, two-part remake of anime classic Akira. The first of which is set to hit screens next summer, expect it to be a blockbuster. The 1988 original was set in a post-apocalypse New Tokyo and featured some of the coolest motorcycles ever imagined, they still influence bike design to this day.
The films will return to Katsuhiro Otomo's original manga for inspiration, each one will be based on three of the six original series. Otomo is on board as Executive Producer, which gives us some hope that these films will turn out OK.
We're excited about the films, if just for the opportunity to see live-action reworkings of the original motorcycles and chase scenes. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that they don't go all unbelievable Matrix-style on us. [Via Hell For Leather]
Comments
influencing all the style of honda goldwings
Is DiCaprio playing Akira? He's a white dude, they'll hafta rename it Bob!
^HA!
sigh.... im fearfull twards this
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!
I think Im going to cry.
@POLAЯ: [farm4.static.flickr.com]
How do I post a picture now? SNAP!
Mind: blown
You know, I actually think this has potential. Otomo is on board as executive producer and the director looks like a serious sci-fi freak: [www.imdb.com]
@ØmÆgä ßrÅff: Can you see this???
Bob: that's classic, good work.
Motorcycles? Those sure look like Honda Helix scooters in Manga clothing to me.
Forget about tripping balls to Speed Racer, this has the potential to be much more effective.
@POLAЯ: yes... 'splain please?
New Jalopnik poll:
Who are the biggest losers... guys who turn DeLoreans into "time machines" or guys who turn motorcycles into whatever the hell that is?
@ØmÆgä ßrÅff: Now xtra simpole - copy and paste into box!
@POLAЯ: OMG THAT WAS SIMPLE!!!!!!
SNAP... TY Polar
@Smitty:
Yeah, I saw Helix-redesigned-on-LSD in the black one.
Not necessarily bad, but definitely different.
Besides the Helix having small wheels, which lead to odd handling, it was a pretty neat machine. My wife had one for a while.
[www.totalmotorcycle.com]
yay... commenting seems to be working now.
tried to post the following maybe 6 times.
TETSUOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
if they make the bike a chopper (like in Kanye West's Akira-ripoff music video), heads will fucking roll.
@POLAЯ: You mean Kaneda?
KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANEEEEEDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
Who is playing the giant mutated amoeba thing at the end?
Please be Rosie O'Donnell
Please be Rosie O'Donnell
Please be Rosie O'Donnell
@POLAЯ: Digitally rendered Asian features.
Dudes, what the hell is this? Why remake this? If you can't appreciate it in it's original animated form, then the movie's just not for you.
Besides, anyone who's seen the movie should be able to attest to the fact that there's a few scenes that would be more than a little tricky to pull off in live action without them looking like total ass. Not to mention that they're changing the setting from Tokyo to New York (presumably due to the westernized cast?). And, finally: Leonardo DiCaprio? Producing? Acting, even?
Well it should be better than speed racer.
and how has akirachan not commented yet?
This movie better be good.
Is it going to make no goddamn sense like the original?
Rip off...just like japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's work was ripped of--most notably by "spaghetti-western" Sergio Leone.
Now I have to take down the original version of the "Bob" poster in my cube at work...
You know, there has been 25 years of scooter evolution since the Helix!
Some scooters have 16" wheels now.
Some scooters are 800cc now.
The lines are all blurred. There is no longer any clear definition of what is a scooter vs. what is a motorcycle. For every example you can cite, there are exceptions to the contrary. My previous one was a 650cc twin with radial tires and tiptronic shifting, which weighed over 550lbs and max'd out at 115 mph!
The most Akira-like scooter on the market currently is probably the Yamaha Morphous. This is a modern take on the 80's scooters though. It is very UNrepresentative of most modern maxiscooters.
The whitewash of anime continues...
Speed Racer (Emil Hirsch)
Dragonball (Justin Chatwin! Are you serious?)
Street Fighter (girlfriend from Smallville is Chun Li! Jesus...)
Robotech/Macross (Tobey Maguire, Jesus...H. Christ)
And now Akira. What's next Ninja Scroll with Brad Pitt? Or maybe Ghost in the Shell with Jessica Alba, mmmmmm....
@darex:
Oh, I'm with you on the scooter front being radically different than it was...hey, the Helix was only 20 years ago!
I'm all for the maxi-scooters made, today, and in fact, still secretly lust for an '86 Honda CT110, dual-range gearbox and all. Gotta love a bike with an OEM extra fuel tank and a snorkel!
Leonardo DiCaprio has been on a roll lately, (Blood Diamond, Departed, etc), and I think that he has enough sense to make this really good or not do it at all. Think about Frank Miller being involved with the making of the Sin City movie, and how crappy that could've turned out had he not been part of the production. I'm willing to give all involved the benefit of the doubt on this one.
i don't mean to be a downer, but, the bike was ok for Akira, but nowadays you need something more up to date. For instance, the CG movie Final Fantasy Advent Children by Square Enix, remember those bikes? BAD ASS.
so... even in my anime period, I still hated Akira...
hrrrmmmm
i can has new edit functions in mo betters FireFoxes?
@aedwards000: What do you think the bikes in Advent Children were inspired by?
I want to see the CLOWNS riding around in one of these :]
The movie might be a little racially charged, and how are they going to have the triangle noses from the original movie?
Looks like 2009 is going to be a good year for comic books turning into films - the Watchmen is finished now and should be released then too, and that's looking amazing.
@scotte: I'm a big fan of Kurosawa, but don't think he 'ripped off' Shakespeare. The Western remake of The Seven Samurais was a fine movie in its own right. For the ultimate remake, see the comdy 'Roxanne' (based on the classic tragedy 'Cyrano de Bergerac') by Steve Martin.
@aedwards000:
Fair enough, but Cloud's bike (actually all of them) are basically ripoffs of Kaneda's bike. Without Akira it wouldn't have happened.
(I'm not trying to diss on AC, though, as i love that movie for all the wrong reasons.)
Anyway... i'm not sure how this movie is going to make sense if it's set in America. Like... New York is the new Tokyo? I guess it does get destroyed about once a week now-a-days...
Then again, "not making sense" isn't necessarily a problem for Akira...
I hope I don't see a major fuck up coming,cause it may be one.
DiCaprio is too old for any of the gang parts unless they radically rewrite the characters.... unless they are going to have him buff up and buzz cut to play the Colonel. Too tall to be Nezu, maybe the Doctor but that is kind of a minor part for his pay grade.
@Simpsons-Movie-ruled: that looks like the racers from Venus Wars;
[aswars.tripod.com]
how do you post images?
I tried [img] but i got nuthin
@GreatSunJester: Addedum - just checked Wikipedia and they show
"Andrew Lazar, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jennifer Davisson will produce the film. No announcement has been made regarding the cast."
Maybe we are safe after all!
I'm intrigued. I loved Akira when it came out, of course I was 18 then, so that figures. Now every time I see some Anime, even the good kind with 1000 penis monsters raping everything in sight I still turn the channel. Come to think of it I would rather see a live action remake of Legend of the Overfiend. very NSFW:
+ Watch video
Great. Warner Brothers. Whoever works on it is going to wish for death, because that's how WB makes movies. They'll dick around with it for six months, then step in during the last month of post-production and start handing down 'creative' decisions from on high. They have a unique ability to snatch mediocrity from the jaws of genius.
The vehicles will be cool, unless they turn the animation over to the character department, the result of which will look like papercraft boxes being flung down the stairs.
OOOOO whats with the new commentage stuff :S pretty kool
AND I loved akira
they better not Knight Fuck it Rider
up
ooohhhhh man!!! a classic anime movie that shouldn't be remade. and why leo! i think Keanu Reeves would have been better, he does more sci fi flicks then leo.
Kaneeeedaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!
Tetsuooooooooooooooo!!!!
This will be really really good or really really bad...no in-between...Leo can act his balls off, but I'm not sure such a heavyweight is needed for any of the roles...which leads me to believe that it will be changed up...
Lots of CGI, no doubt...look forward to their stadium sequence vision...puffy Kanada all wired up killing peeps in his new found fat rolls...
I am horrified by this idea. Is Otomo really so hard up for cash? "Akira" is anime's "Gone With the Wind" or (more likely) "Apocalypse Now" and remaking it is just as foolish an idea.