Robert Pattinson lined up for 'Akira'

I agree, Akira is not a story that should be adapted. It's too weird. It's not too far from Ninja Scroll and when you are there, you're basically watching Urotsukidoji. If there were more Japanese directors in Hollywood, they might have been a good bet.

In my original post I remarked at that I thought people felt Watchmen was too similar, more akin to a talking comic than film (and mentioned all the ultimate cuts etc) and then mentioned "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World", a film I love so much - but I can treat it differently to the comics. In my mind, SP is about the characters, drama and relationships but Edgar Wright turned the story into a three-act action/romance film and it works fantastically... as a separate/partner to the existing series. My point being, as much as I like things sticking to a text, film is a different medium to comic and I wish the people just made good films instead of trying to incorporate pointless comic book ideas. The definition of "adapt" on Google is "make fit for, or change to suit a new purpose" and that needs to happen more often - they need to be treated as separate entities. By both the fans and the creators.

Ugh. I went on a different tangent, sorry. Again, Akira is NOT a property that should be adapted. GitS has a better chance. Even something like Bleach is brimming with potential for a summer blockbuster. Not the heavyweight Akria.
 
I see no need for you to apologise there, Jayme - you're making some excellent points. It's definitely some of the most intelligent stuff I've seen any any discussion of this subject so far.

Y'know, a thought that keeps coming to my mind is that I wish they'd just drop this and get behind the Cowboy Bebop movie. That always seemed like a safer bet, much harder to ruin. And a good place to start the anime-to-Hollywood-movie experiment proper.

I can see that would be fun, put bums in seats and appeal to an audience outside anime fans alone. Akira is the exact opposite - risky with regards to mass appeal (in my opinion) and in the proposed form, overly ambitious.
 
HdE said:
I've always struggled to see what the point is of bringing these stories to the screen if important details from them must be changed. Obviously, the studios will make decisions they perceive will equate to financial success, but some things have to be sacred.

Bottom line, if it's not adaptable, then don't bother. Use it as a baseplate for something else, sure, but don't pass it off as something it's not.
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Perhaps they feel it is easier to adapt an existing property (notice that there are numerous video games that have been licenced which have yet to reach the big screen) rather than come up with an original idea of their own - in other words maybe they are just lazy.
 
Akira has too many intrinsically Japanese values and ideas. The coming of age side of things also means that all the actors mentioned are at least 10 years to old too.

I can't see how this has much in common with the original work apart from the name...
 
I agree that Akira is difficult to adapt. Something like Death Note at least shares many western sensibilities: the whodunnit, the cat and mouse. With the right team I think that could work.

As for Akira or the languishing in development hell Eva movie,
the concepts and themes are too big for hollywood I think. You get these huge companies buying the rights, the one thing they want is profit. I think a smaller film company would be more interested in telling the story and telling it well.
 
The only way would be a kick ass type setup when someone with a love of the subject makes a film independently then drops it on a big distributor...
 
Hokum said:
Akira has too many intrinsically Japanese values and ideas. The coming of age side of things also means that all the actors mentioned are at least 10 years to old too.
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EXACTLY.

There's a subtlety to the manga that's already lost on a lot of folks who pick it up in the West, and you can bet that Hollywood ain't gonna pick up on that stuff.
 
This never, ever sounded like a good idea, the potential cast being one of the smallest and least significant problems with it.
 
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