Forum - View topicNEWS: Hollywood Reporter: Live-Action Akira Film's Production Shut Down
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jtstellar
Posts: 94 |
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hollywood writers can't write for shit anyway.. best bet you have is usually with directors who write their own scripts, like christ nolan
how embarrassing it is to have a director out-write you. so much for expertise division |
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Banden
 Posts: 140 |
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Tempest: Typically your expertise into virtually any subject anime industry related are incredibly insightful and hard to disagree with, but on this one I just cannot see where you're coming from when you say that this film stood to tangibly benefit anime and manga sales in any measurable way? I don't quite understand how a live-action Hollywood film of uncertain quality and questionable faithfulness to the original source material really stands to benefit anyone other than the filmmakers themselves who have the comfort and security of working under an established brand name? We could consider the examples of recent anime-adapted Hollywood films in the past 3+ years: Speed Racer, Dragonball Evolution, Astro Boy. Is there any indication that those "big projects" did any of the things you just described? Bring a lot of good exposure? Lead to more sales? Funding more anime & manga? If it did, you'll have to explain their influence to me, because while Dragonball is certainly a seminal moneymaker that never seems to stop selling new editions, neither Speed Racer with the Wachowski brothers directing, nor Astro Boy with Nicholas Cage and Samuel L. Jackson in its cast managed to spark a new beginning on the anime side for either of those properties, nor did the combined effort of the three prevent ADV from breaking up about the same timeframe, or Tokyopop and Bandai from throwing in the towel more recently. Did someone really think an adaptation of Akira that had been considering Zac Efron for the lead role was going to singlehandedly turn the tide? Even more than that: My background isn't in film, but it seems to me as an observer that reinvigorating other creative mediums isn't much of a priority for Hollywood. I mean, sure, take the Transformers movies for example. They've spawned a lot of new action figures, and toys, and memorabilia, but how much of that exposure and enthusiasm really feeds all the way back and renews people's interest in the original source material? Some, I'm sure, and I'm aware of the new Transformers collector's DVD sets that have been released in the wake of the films, but it hasn't exactly set off an explosion of new Transformers animation and comics? Consider also all the super hero movie adaptations from the past 10 years: Did they restore the American comics business to its golden days? Or Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings/Twilight/etc? Have those Hollywood treatments driven consumers back to long format literature in any significant way? I just don't see that. Individual properties have exploitable crossover success, but I'm not seeing the part where whole industries get saved. I can't speak for anyone else, but as an anime fan myself, my primary interest is obviously rooted in appreciating and encouraging awareness of anime & manga that are still by and large successful in their country of origin but finding less and less of a chance to reach store shelves here in the west, and I see little to no indication that supporting half-assed Hollywood remakes are having any impact there? Supporting those films is supporting something, but it seems to me that the something is so tangential and inconsequential to the health and prosperity of "the (anime & manga) industry" that gets discussed in so much detail on sites like ANN, that I no longer feel particularly interested in seeing these kinds of adaptations succeed? |
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bradc
 Posts: 152 |
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Not only the script being the problem. Mostly when it comes to improvising and creativity with the director in charge trying to take something, or add something and make it work on feasible film budget; realistically speaking. Take something 2D into 3D world, the movie itself are very limited what they can do... Judging with the added news, they aren't giving in yet. Last edited by bradc on Thu Jan 05, 2012 10:14 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Rolando_jose
 Posts: 240 Location: Ahhhh it's vacation time again! |
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IF this movie ever see the light... Be afraid, be ver afraid.
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GATSU
Posts: 15304 |
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Kaibaman: That's bullshit and you know it. And you wanna know how I know you know it? Because if there was a movie called Copper Surfer, you would be all over it.
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tygerchickchibi
 Posts: 1448 |
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I think the Dragon Ball Z movie comparison isn't good anymore.
We're all aware that the movie was bad. Yes. DBZ Kai is not only filling up Nicktoons Network schedule, it also airs on Toonzai and has been pretty successful for a show that has been out for over 10 years. That series is far from being ruined from one bad movie. Gantz came straight up from Japan and that movie was BAD BAD BAD. It was also adapted from the manga/anime. So, yeah. Bring it on, America. I'm not bothered. |
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ArsenicSteel
 Posts: 2370 |
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Says you. Up until your comment I had only seen praise for it, and actually completely forgot it was released here until I saw the reviews. |
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tygerchickchibi
Posts: 1448 |
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Says me and plenty of other people who left the theaters with a bad taste in their mouth. :c
Well... Oh look, a review from ANN!
Sorry. :/ |
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stararnold
 Posts: 227 Location: LaSalle, Quebec, Canada |
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Teriyaki Terrier
 Posts: 5689 |
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Of course, you can't also forget the Dragon Ball Z live action movie as well. If that wasn't a failure, truly I am not sure what is then. I don't mean it solely from a fan's perspective either, it didn't do so well financially either. But Surrender Arrest and Tempest both bring up excellent points. Considering the overall theme of Akira, it probably wouldn't be as bad as the other live action anime adaptations we've seen since 2007 and years past. The anime industry (more so the Western area) isn't doing so well and just this year alone, we've entirely lost Bandai Entertainment. I am not sure the exact number of USA companies, but can I only think of Viz Media, Funimation, Sentai and NISA. Not a large number, especially since NISA and Sentai are still relatively new companies and to a certain extent, so is Viz Media as they merged years ago with another company. So that may very well mean that Funimation is now one of the very few companies that has still one company that has been in business for a couple of decades now. Maybe not that much, but they've been around for some time. None the less, the anime industry isn't looking so good and news such as this, actually does more harm than good. |
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Skreemaster
Posts: 1 |
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There is no recipe better for disaster than an enormous project based on a beloved property with too many cooks in the kitchen.
Problem 1. The "director." Jaume Collet-Serra? The guy who brought us House of Wax? Really? This is the visionary who will realize such a gargantuan world? More like someone the producers can control. I'd rather their awful previous choices - The Hughes brothers or Stephen Norrington, frankly - although they were ALSO the wrong choices. So the producers and agents have a HISTORY of making the wrong choices with regard to who is directing this film. Problem 2. All the executives (studio and agents) and how involved they all are simultaneously. Warners executives have their hands in re-writes. CAA have their hands in re-writes. Leo DiCaprio and Appian Way, along with Warners and CAA are actually considering using the writer from The Green Lantern to re-write the script. The Green Lantern won the worst reviews for story, plot and character I've ever heard. Problem 3. The casting. I have less of a problem with Kristen than the rest of you guys but yes, if you're going for a classic, go with the Rooney Mara-style choice. A hard-edged actress. (I see the dilemma here though because Dragon Tattoo itself was the star as was the director and lead actor so they could take a chance with the actress on that one, wheras this needs the names to make a female audience care so their audience isn't all us guys on in the theater opening weekend.) But still. And Michael Pitt for Tetsuo? He reads "dumb" in everything he does. Never convincing. The Tron guy for Kaneda? (the side by side images of him don't look that bad but he doesn't have personality, only a pretty face. Kaneda has balls!) Aside: And where are these white people getting these names? Were they adopted by Japanese families - or perhaps their parents were huge fans of anime, all of them? My CONCLUSION is that I agree with many fans here that it isn't always the end of the world. I will still love the Philip Pullman "His Dark Materials" books even though The Golden Compass feature was a too-many-cooks fiasco and big huge disappointment (especially to those of us who wanted to see the second book realized.) But the world of the property is sullied. Try telling someone else about it and they remark that they heard the movie sucked. So depressing. AKIRA was such a striking addition to the field of entertainment at such an early time for such a filmic piece of animation that it deserves the full-on "visionary" treatment. It needs a director who is so powerful the executives are scared. Someone who can charge forth and make it happen. Someone on the executive fear level of James Cameron, Chris Nolan, Peter Jackson or even someone produced by Jackson like Neill Blomkamp who gave us more humanity and sci-fi in DISTRICT 9 than all the new CGI-fests combined. This thing needs greatness at the helm. When you have all these cooks, the best that comes about is a workmanlike result. I just don't think such a mind-blowing creative piece deserves to be an assembly line product. It has to be a work of passion. |
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GhostShell
Posts: 1009 Location: Richmond, B.C., Canada |
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I've got to agree with these folks and tempest on this one. People can either go see adaptions if they want, or not. Their choice. If the adaption is good, then it might promote an interest in the source material, be it anime, manga, or both. If the adaption is not good, then the source material is still there if someone wants to check them out, but it's not going to harm the source material. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15304 |
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And as for anyone who says Akira or DB INO can't hurt the original series, how many of you are still reading Tank Girl, Barbed Wire, and Howard the Duck? I rest my case.
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blarg01
Posts: 70 |
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Give it to Syfy. They screwed up Gundam so why not this? They will save Warner a ton of money with special effects and actors
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population_tire
 Posts: 575 |
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It does too hurt the source material. People who might have been interested in it will think it sucks.
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