As debs had never seen AKIRA, beyond the first 15 mins or so, we decided ‘Rapture’ night was a great night to dig it out; nothing else going on ;) and, as the live-action debacle draws closer, I was reluctantly anticipating the spoilers to come on debs’ behalf. Like most ‘thinking’ folks, I dread Hollywood remakes of… uh… anything, and the news of another much loved treasure from my youth being soiled from a great height by adult human beings always throws me into a bit of a funk.
However, having re-watched AKIRA for the first time in years, I actually think it could be an awesome live action film, if done with heart and soul. Once you’ve got through the messy opening, got over some of the poorer voice acting and allowed your head into the sci-fi brain space, AKIRA is a brilliant film, entirely deserving it’s cult status. There is so much potential there to create something mind-blowing using today’s (and tomorrow’s) CGI techniques, cinematography and passionate direction.
Maybe Christopher Nolan could do it justice? It’s really not too far away from Dark Knight. JJ Abrams might have something up his sleeve to make it a modern classic (Akira is a mystery box, after all…). We’d be totally up for doing it! ;) Alas, if the rumoured cast is anything to go by (and it surely is – 25-45+(!) year old white American males as the lead Asian teenage roles) live-action AKIRA is inevitably going to be a Transformers-eque brutalisation, an exquisitely engineered pocket-money extraction machine with all the subtlety of the child-catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
I understand that Hollywood filmmaking is often mostly guided (shackled?) by it’s own warped brand of popcorn-friendly unit-shifting, but what I FAIL to understand is why making brilliant films doesn’t pay off just as well, if not better, than having 90+ minutes of famous men and a woman being virtually pummelled by floor-shaking effects? Successfully selling anything to a mass market is largely down to the marketing, so putting a Hollywood marketing budget into selling a great film will be more likely to pay off than putting the same budget into marketing a terrible one. Right? Bad reviews and thousands of people complaining about you ruining something they love vs word-of-mouth recommendations and massive post-theatrical run sales? Whaaaa?
The Dark Knight
Critically acclaimed, it set numerous records during its theatrical run and is currently one of only three films to have earned more than $500 million at the North American box office. With over $1 billion in revenue worldwide, it is the seventh highest-grossing film of all time (unadjusted for inflation). The film received eight Academy Award nominations and won for Best Sound Editing and Best Supporting Actor for Ledger’s performance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Knight_(film)
Psycho (1998 Remake)
The film earned $37,141,130 in box office, $21,456,130 of which came from North America. Estimates of the production budget range from $20 million to $60 million; while promoting his 2002 film Gerry, Van Sant said he thought the producers “broke even” financially.Reception
This version of Psycho received mostly negative reviews; it was awarded two Golden Raspberry Awards, for Worst Remake or Sequel and Worst Director for Gus Van Sant, while Anne Heche was nominated as Worst Actress. Camille Paglia commented that the only reason to watch it was “to see Anne Heche being assassinated”, but that “it should have been a much more important work and event than it was.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_(1998_film)
So… AKIRA, then… Anyone?
Although Keanu Reeves has wisely passed on the role of Kaneda I realised that it would be ok if he was in the film – they could ‘Benjamin Button’ him to be all three weird blue children (The Espers). I would watch that…
Anyway, either by coincidence or by some weird subconscious choice on my part, it turns out AKIRA is almost ‘rapture’ themed. Maybe Harold Camping’s insane second attempt at global public humiliation was actually a prediction that the Super Mega Action Plus crew would watch a ‘rapture’ film in the best way they know how – cult 1980′s cyberpunk sci-fi anime! ;) Nice prediction, crazy guy.
For thoughts on the live-action film from a manga viewpoint, check out our pal Rachel’s blog (much of which is NSFW, but this link is ok). Also, while we’re at it, check out the amazing artwork below, by the supremely talented Gregg Hartley, who introduced me to AKIRA many years ago. Click the image to see more!
