The live-action, US adaptation of the Anime classic Akira has been a long, winding road of bad decisions. Ignoring the first bad decision of even thinking of making it, filmmakers The Hughes Brothers first considered giving Zac Efron the part of gang leader Kaneda, then they put the whole thing in “New Manhattan,” replaced the film’s laser gun with a TEC-9 and changed Testuo’s name to Travis. Then they offered that same teen gang leader part to 46-year old Keanu Reeves. Luckily, Reeves turned it down, which was a little unexpected considering his track record of not turning down horrible, horrible movies.
But luckily, it looks the movie’s finally reached the end of the road.
Comic artist Chris Weston has spent the last year working as a production artist on the film and recently posted on his blog about the film ending production. Although he can’t reveal much about what he did on the film because of non-disclosure agreements, he can say that the first thing he was asked to do was redesign Kaneda’s bike, which is easily the most iconic thing about the original film:
So the version I created was a bit meatier and nastier: the tyres were bigger, the engine was bigger, some of the casing was stripped off to expose the workings beneath. Kaneda was in a motorcycle gang that used these vehicles as weapons, so we gave it a more beaten-up look, dirtier, a few dents and scratches here and there.
In silhouette you’d have no problem recognising it as the Akira Bike, but the lighting would reveal a whole new level of texture and detail.There was a short discussion about making it black, but I did my bit to keep it red, albeit a darker, bergundy hue. I believe BMW in Munich had begun production of a working model, but I can’t vouch for that.
To my mind, that’s the best evidence that the filmmakers had no idea what they were doing. After all, why shell out the money to make a version of a classic film if you’re going to just change the one thing that people remember about the original?
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“To my mind, that’s the best evidence that the filmmakers had no idea what they were doing. After all, why shell out the money to make a version of a classic film if you’re going to just change the one thing that people remember about the original?”
They must have the Resident Evil Movie playbook.
Somebody needs to send a robot back in time to destroy all traces of this movie’s existence. When released, it will create a giant cultural black hole that will engulf the fabric of space-time in shittiness
“After all, why shell out the money to make a version of a classic film if you’re going to just change the one thing that people remember about the original?”
Actually, the one major thing I remember was dudes’ organs exploding everywhere. I think I remember there was something about a motorcycle in there, but yeah. Organs. Everywhere.
If the exact design of the bike is ” the one thing that people remember about the original” then the original can’t have been all that impressive, can it? So who cares how much they change?
I hope that no one goes to see this movie and it completely bombs. Akira is a classic. You should not mess with classics. It is the movie that got most people into anime in the first place. And to have it made live action with American actors, different setting, different names, and different props….just kill it with fire before it hits theaters!
If I may play “Devil’s Advocate” for a moment:
Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted thousands of times. In fact, several modern movies are essentially updated versions of his works. “The Magnificent Seven” is “The Seven Samurai” set in the American West. My reactionary thought is that a Japanese classic should not be messed with. Okay, but what about taking the plot (teen biker has run-in with government test subject and becomes a test subject himself), setting it in a different location and time, and making it work as an American sci-fi film?
There’s just aspects of the culture that I think would be lost, putting it in the US. There were a lot of parallels drawn with the nuclear bombings and frankly, I’ve seen enough of the “US Government secret organization” movies. Let’s see what’s up with Japan. I’m sure they’re into some crazy shit. Like psychic warriors. And lasers.
The changes in the bike make sense, the changes in the story dont. Aesthetics from the animated piece are nostalgic but may not fit within the scope of a real world adaptation, and so some changes would be expected, otherwise theres a measure of camp that would likely come from a 1 to 1 representation at least visually. I think the choices when it comes to cast were lewd… the change in location, not right either… so too much was being tampered with in the thru-put of the story line. I honestly would love to see leaked photos of the bike BMW was making… or the sketches Chris Weston had envisioned. Id like to see the world they had been designing, just not its main characters…