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NEWS: Gary Whitta Discusses Live-Action Akira's Early Drafts


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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 4:19 am Reply with quote
Gee, the one guy who didn't want it to suck gets booted. I wonder why? Rolling Eyes
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ikillchicken



Joined: 12 Feb 2007
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Location: Vancouver
PostPosted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 6:18 am Reply with quote
GATSU wrote:
Gee, the one guy who didn't want it to suck gets booted. I wonder why? Rolling Eyes


Because GATSU, Hollywood secretly wants anime adaptations to fail. It's because they're evil and hate you in a very strong and personal way. Rolling Eyes
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Sven Viking



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 1032
PostPosted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 10:21 am Reply with quote
ikillchicken wrote:
GATSU wrote:
Gee, the one guy who didn't want it to suck gets booted. I wonder why? Rolling Eyes


Because GATSU, Hollywood secretly wants anime adaptations to fail. It's because they're evil and hate you in a very strong and personal way. Rolling Eyes

You may be on to something, there... there does seem to be compelling evidence for it.

Edit: Oh, wait, maybe that was video game adaptations.
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jsyxx





PostPosted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 12:31 pm Reply with quote
ikillchicken wrote:
GATSU wrote:
Gee, the one guy who didn't want it to suck gets booted. I wonder why? Rolling Eyes


Because GATSU, Hollywood secretly wants anime adaptations to fail. It's because they're evil and hate you in a very strong and personal way. Rolling Eyes


You sound like you are using sarcasm here like this isn't completely true. I think anime adaptions are probably worse than Videogame adaptions. At least videogame adaption have the marginal chance of making their money back part of the time. Every major anime adaption has both sucked and been a total flop financially.
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The Naked Beast



Joined: 26 Jun 2006
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 1:22 pm Reply with quote
J-Syxx wrote:
Every major anime adaption has both sucked and been a total flop financially.
The most recent example of this statement is best exemplified by this cinematic masterpiece. I feel that by trying to adapt any anime or video game into a live-action movie will not do the original work any justice. Somewhere along the line, the original impact and message of the original work is lost.
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Celeste20XX



Joined: 11 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 1:59 pm Reply with quote
I think it is possible to do a good adaptation, but I don't think filmmakers are as used to adapting visual-heavy media like videogames/anime in the way they're used to adapting pictureless novels. Western comics make a difficult transition to Hollywood as well.

Any good adaptation requires making changes to the original work (since we're talking about moving from one medium to another), but what's important is capturing the spirit of the original, and ensure the survival of those elements that made the original so great.

Despite the whining of some purists, I thought "Lord of the Rings" (a famously frightening prospect for adaptation) was a pretty flawless adaptation, despite the tedium of Tolkien's prose, the length, and the cast of hundreds. The creative team behind it were all fans, of course, and were able to find a relatively flexible, open-minded studio (New Line).

It is probably only a matter of time before adaptations of manga/anime improve.
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jsyxx





PostPosted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 2:17 pm Reply with quote
Celeste20XX wrote:
I think it is possible to do a good adaptation, but I don't think filmmakers are as used to adapting visual-heavy media like videogames/anime in the way they're used to adapting pictureless novels. Western comics make a difficult transition to Hollywood as well.

Any good adaptation requires making changes to the original work (since we're talking about moving from one medium to another), but what's important is capturing the spirit of the original, and ensure the survival of those elements that made the original so great.

Despite the whining of some purists, I thought "Lord of the Rings" (a famously frightening prospect for adaptation) was a pretty flawless adaptation, despite the tedium of Tolkien's prose, the length, and the cast of hundreds. The creative team behind it were all fans, of course, and were able to find a relatively flexible, open-minded studio (New Line).

It is probably only a matter of time before adaptations of manga/anime improve.


The real problem here is the coprorate stupidity of modern Hollywood's souless system of making films. The tend to decide to make a film about a property strictly as a coprorate business decision then hire cheap directors who have only directed music videos and commercials before hand and would literally direct any movie handed to them for a lot less than directors who would cost more since they are proven comodoties. These people are never fans of the source material and it shows. The screenwriters are also not usually fans either. Even if the original pitch was made by a fan, the screen-play will receive 5 re-writer until the studio thinks it has been "improved" to the point it doesn't even resemble the original game or anime anymore. Comic books have been treated better recently becasue of people like Sam Raimi who actually give a damn about Spider-Man and so forth. Big studios are actually willing to pay proven creative talent as well since super hero movies have been proven blockbusters on a consistent basis.
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Romuska
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Joined: 02 Mar 2004
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 3:05 pm Reply with quote
Here's the problem with this production. It exists. They already made an Akira movie it was fine the way it was. I've said it before and I'll say it again. There is no point in remaking or "re-adapting" a a film unless you are 100% confident that you can make it better than the original.
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HellKorn



Joined: 03 Oct 2006
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 4:51 pm Reply with quote
Romuska wrote:
Here's the problem with this production. It exists. They already made an Akira movie it was fine the way it was. I've said it before and I'll say it again. There is no point in remaking or "re-adapting" a a film unless you are 100% confident that you can make it better than the original.
ANN wrote:
The ComingSoon.net reports on Sunday on an update that screenwriter Gary Whitta gave regarding his work on Warner Brothers and Appian Way's planned live-action film adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira manga.
It's as if people don't actually read these articles before posting!

As for North American live-action adaptions of anime, we haven't exactly seen a wide variety, so judgment of this and, say, the Bebop movie are still too premature.
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stararnold



Joined: 22 Sep 2007
Posts: 227
Location: LaSalle, Quebec, Canada
PostPosted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:11 pm Reply with quote
Love to see how the story will turn out in the end.

"Akira" should be easy for Warner Bros. to adapt into U.S. live-action flick, regarding its sci-fi nature.
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Baltimoron



Joined: 17 Sep 2009
Posts: 43
Location: Charm City
PostPosted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 8:00 pm Reply with quote
Celeste20XX wrote:
I think it is possible to do a good adaptation, but I don't think filmmakers are as used to adapting visual-heavy media like videogames/anime in the way they're used to adapting pictureless novels. Western comics make a difficult transition to Hollywood as well.

Any good adaptation requires making changes to the original work (since we're talking about moving from one medium to another), but what's important is capturing the spirit of the original, and ensure the survival of those elements that made the original so great.

Despite the whining of some purists, I thought "Lord of the Rings" (a famously frightening prospect for adaptation) was a pretty flawless adaptation, despite the tedium of Tolkien's prose, the length, and the cast of hundreds. The creative team behind it were all fans, of course, and were able to find a relatively flexible, open-minded studio (New Line).

It is probably only a matter of time before adaptations of manga/anime improve.


Good post.

Making changes to the source material is the single most important part of adapting a property to film and it makes or breaks a production.

Take Watchmen for example. Zack Snyder made a virtually panel for panel, shot for shot (I know, I know: no squidmonster) comicbook flick. Unsurprisingly, people who weren't into comics didn't care (evidenced by the boxoffice falling off of a cliff after opening weekend). The project lost money domestically and managed to make a modest profit after its international release. A studio isn't going to complain too hard about any movie that makes money in the end, but they're all after a surer thing than Rorschach and his friends turned out to be.

And that's what makes the task of adaptation so difficult. If you change too little you'll fail to capture the mainstream audience you want. If you change too much you'll alienate the pre-existing fanbase that you're relying on to create a buzz around the project. Anime adaptations are faced with the higher hurdle of a smaller built-in fanbase that is possibly even crazier and pickier than comics fans. It's a thankless task that's unlikely to bear financial fruit.
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Jih2



Joined: 24 Jul 2007
Posts: 403
Location: East coast
PostPosted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 10:07 pm Reply with quote
And I simply think that adaptations should add to the original work, such as Apocalypse Now.

This project is a shrug. It'll look like another big budget sci-fi "in the future", medium filtered, will die after 2 weekends movie that we've all seen trailers for a million times. I might care if someone interesting were given one of these anime adaptation projects but that doesn't appear to ever be happening because they're too busy with their own work which frankly is probably best.

Of course we can always hold out our har, har, hars and wait for the damn thing.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15279
PostPosted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 11:21 pm Reply with quote
Balti: Actually, Watchmen isn't a faithful adaptation, which is why it falls flat on its face at the end. [*cough* giant squid *cough*] The only thing really missing in PJ's LOTR is Tom Bombadil, which is why it does not suck, since it doesn't affect the story. If you're going to make something which represents the spirit of the original, you do not drastically change the plot or the race/gender of the character, unless said actor/actress can still hold up the story.
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ikillchicken



Joined: 12 Feb 2007
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Location: Vancouver
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 12:09 am Reply with quote
J-Syxx wrote:
ikillchicken wrote:
GATSU wrote:
Gee, the one guy who didn't want it to suck gets booted. I wonder why? Rolling Eyes


Because GATSU, Hollywood secretly wants anime adaptations to fail. It's because they're evil and hate you in a very strong and personal way. Rolling Eyes


You sound like you are using sarcasm here like this isn't completely true.


Uh...no. No it's not. Fact: There is no grand Hollywood conspiracy to intentionally make anime adaptations suck. Because that's makes no sense and is crazy.
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giascle



Joined: 09 Sep 2008
Posts: 157
Location: Denver
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 12:35 am Reply with quote
They were planning to turn all six volumes into a two-hour movie?
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