entertainment

Collet-Serra to direct U.S. 'Akira' remake

16 Comments

Spanish Catalan director Jaume Collet-Serra has been tapped to direct a live-action remake of the Japanese animation hit "Akira," Variety entertainment magazine reports. The Warner Brothers sci-fi film -- based on the 1988 anime cult film -- would be set in "New Manhattan" and follow the leader of a biker gang who must save his friend, found to have superhuman abilities, from medical examiners.

Katsuhiro Otomo, who created the original "Akira" graphic novel and wrote and directed the 1988 film, will executive produce the new version, Variety said in its report.

Collet-Serra has previously directed this year's "Unknown," starring Liam Neeson, as well as horror thrillers "House of Wax" (2005) and "Orphan" (2009).

© Agence France-Presse

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

16 Comments
Login to comment

This simply cannot be good. While the US film industry has certainly been successful bringing comic book properties to the big screen in recent years, it bears noting that that success has come largely with American cultural properties, i.e., Spider-Man, Superman, Batman.

The same cannot be said for imports that were adapted to more "American" tastes:

Fans trusted Hollywood by going out to see Godzilla (1998) with Matthew Broderick. With a budget of $130 million, the film netted $379 million worldwide. Not bad, right? But fans and casual viewers alike were not impressed or happy with the effort. Why not? Because it wasn't "Godzilla." It was an American twist on the giant-monster film genre that just happened to be called "Godzilla." Any other similarities simply did not exist, including the all-important message of the horrors and consequences of atomic weapons. Fans weren't fooled in the least.

Next, Speed Racer (2008) -- The film cost $120 million to make. It netted a paltry $93 million worldwide. Why? Because it failed miserably to maintain the cultural underpinnings of the original Japanese story, Mach GoGoGo!, which is fraught with enemies, dangers, and a storyline more involved than the cotton-candy pap the Wachowski Brothers tried to pawn on moviegoers.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice? No way.

And yet Hollywood still hasn't gotten it through its thick head that it just isn't good at this.

Dragonball Evolution (2009) -- No one who has any familiarity with the original story has anything possive to say about the film other than that it finally ended. Again, the writers and director took such gratuitous liberties with the source material as to separate it completely from the original story. And they managed to go one further. After dishing out a very conservative $45 million (hmm... Maybe Hollywood's even starting to learn) to make this film, they only managed to bring in $57 million AND piss off the fan base of the very country from which they "borrowed" the source material, Japan. Dragonball Evolution failed abysmally in Japan, the second largest market for Hollywood films in the world.

Just as Japanese fans rejected Godzilla, Speed Racer, and Dragonball Evolution, just as they rejected the the plethora of simply awful video game adaptations (Street Fighter, Tekken, etc.), they wil reject any remake of Akira for the same reasons: American directors and producers just don't get it.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

it's going to be a horrible movie. i'll eat a radioactive cow if it even has the same plot by the time it's released.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

US remakes of classic films don't have, in my view, a history of success. Think e.g. - Italian Job and Day of the Jackal. Still, mustn't prejudge, let's wait and see.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Given their track record with other adaptations I have no hope that this movie will be good at all.

I honestly don't know why they bother with it. They muck up the story so badly fans of the original don't want to see it and I doubt they'll attract any new fans, if people wasn't interested in the original, why would they want to see the adaptations?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

It's unfair to say that remakes of classic films are all bad. MOST are, because they're done by lame producers who just want to bilk off the success of the classic in question, but some are quite good. In some cases you even have the original director do it again but in another setting, which makes it more interesting.

The idea of a live-action movie of Akira at first made me automatically think it's going to suck, but there is some interesting potential. Imagine if Lynch were directing. As it is we have a director with a history of mediocre movies at best, from a production company that DOES often suck. So, it'll probably be garbage.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I was kind of happy when I heard last week that this movie was canned. Notably because:

It`s been heavily Americanized. Even starred Keanu Reaves as main guy. They redesigned the bike. Heavily! Hopefully, this one will stick more to the original.
0 ( +0 / -0 )

Next, Speed Racer (2008) -- The film cost $120 million to make. It netted a paltry $93 million worldwide. Why? Because it failed miserably to maintain the cultural underpinnings of the original Japanese story

You had me until Speed Racer. Horrible film I am sure but the original is hardly a cultural masterwork.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"You had me until Speed Racer. Horrible film I am sure but the original is hardly a cultural masterwork."

True enough. I think it's a fairly safe assumption that there's schlock on both sides of the sea. But the issue isn't so much with the quality of the source material as the faithful interpretation. So far, US filmmakers are zero-for-three as far as I'm concerned.

If someone wants to make a film inspired by "Akira," that's one thing. After all, the 1958 Japanese samurai film, "Kakushi toride no san akunin" was the inspiration behind "Star Wars," and no one criticized Lucas for butchering "The Hidden Fortress." Why? Because he made a different film.

But to have the audacity to call this ill-conceived cash grab a 'remake' while in the very same paragraph the appellation "Neo-frickin'-Manhattan" appears is ridiculous. They've already failed right out of the gate.

This won't be "Akira." It'll be "Escape from New York - Snake on a Bike."

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Make some space for your Razzie award.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Because the Dragonball live-action remake did so well right...?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

BTW, the original is the manga, not the animated movie. This would be based on the manga, not the animated movie, which had changes from the manga.

And it's for Westerners, not the Japanese. The main target would be Westerners who are not familiar with the original manga.

And the Speed Racer movie is based on the Americanized Speed Racer, not Mach Go Go Go. They're different.

Same thing on a planned Voltron movie - it'll be based on Voltron, not GoLion. There's a difference.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Dragon Ball was a completly forgetable movie. I remember more about the steakhouse I went to afterward then the movie itself.

Speed Racer would be good if you were on psychedelic drugs.

Godzilla was just a big egg laying lizard. The french guys chewing gum was the best scene in the movie.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"the leader of a biker gang who must save his friend, found to have superhuman abilities"

If the friend has superhuman abilities, why must this friend be saved? Dumb.

"remake"

They should do a remake of One Million Years B.C. starring Meisa Kuroki and Tomomi Itano, who portray cavewomen from two different tribes, and clash with each other.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

US remakes of classic films don't have, in my view, a history of success. Think e.g. - Italian Job and Day of the Jackal. Still, mustn't prejudge, let's wait and see.

No. This WILL be bad. What was the need to Americanise it??

While they're at it, why don't they Americanise the name too, and call it "Alex" or something?

This will have all the fanboi's screaming hate from the get go.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Many Japanese mangas have been converted into live-action movies with success and commercials. U.S. movie industry has also earned more profits from comic stories to produce live-action films. Harry-porter is another story for British novels converted into entertainment products. U.S. comic authors have also co-produced with film studios for different successful movies so far.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Oh no!!! Not another ridiculous remake. This is a classic that should be ;eft alone. I can imagine already how cheesy this will be.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites