Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Warner Bros. and partner Legendary Pictures has sent out a near-final script to a select group of actors in an effort to secure the main cast for a live-action Akira. The slate of actors reads as a who’s who of young Hollywood for the role of Tetsuo with a slightly older group set for the role of Kaneda.
For the role of the bike-riding Kaneda, the script has been sent out to Garret Hedlund (Tron: Legacy), Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class, Inglorius Basterds) , Chris Pine (Star Trek), Justin Timberlake (The Social Network) and Joaquin Phoenix (Walk The Line, Gladiator).
For the role of the psychotic Tetsuo, actors approached are: Robert Pattinson (Twilight), Andrew Garfield (Spider-Man) and James McAvoy (X-Men: First Class, Wanted). Although Leonardo DiCaprio is listed as a producer for this film series, he’s not been named as a potential actor for this movie.
It’s interesting to note that there’s several potential re-pairings: the casting of Timberlake and Garfield could be a Social Network reconnection, or if Fassbender and McAvoy are cast it would be their second pairing after this summer’s X-Men: First Class.
An American remake of the seminal Japanese anime Akira has been in talks for years, but this latest announcement marks the closest Hollywood has come to making it a reality. Akira is tentatively set for an August start, with film duo the Hughes Brothers (From Hell, Book of Eli) set to direct.
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Why.
I saw the anime years ago and didn’t understand a damn thing about it. I have no idea how they’ll adapt it for American audiences.
It’s one of my least favorite anime movie. It makes no sense and is so freakin weird.
The anime is fun to watch and look at but it really doesn’t make sense. The manga is fantastic though.
I don’t know how I feel about this stupid remake.
This is going to suck so bad ………………… Just change the title and have it as inspired by or something..
It’s already unweildy and grandiose and beyond comprehension (and I mean those all as compliments), why even bother? It’s either going to be The Last Airbender or Transformers 2. Terrible or totally insane and terrible. There is a 1% chance it will be a masterpiece I guess.
Smacks of Last Samurai
No thanks.
Looks ok till I saw the Hughes Bros directing, Book of Eli was terrible, how could the guy be blind and do what he did? Their From Hell adaption was no better either, terrible and paid very little attention to the source material. I hope they are replaced.
im actually looking forward to this. i wish they would give it to a diffrent director though. id like to see the wachowski brothers take a crack at it. also what happend to joseph gordon levitt(inception,third rock from the sun) playing tetsuo.
I loved Akira in HS, but, like a lot of people, couldn’t really understand why any of it was happening — it was just crazy!
Based on the casting it looks like they’re throughly Anglicizing it.
horrible
“Akira” is one of my favorite movies, period, and also one of my favorite soundtracks. This is like letting Brett Ratner remake “Star Wars.”
I’m with @icn1983, it’s one of my favorite movies ever, but I don’t understand why they’re screening anglo actors for Asian roles, unless they’re neglecting to mention that the characters are going to be based on Kaneda and Tetsuo. I had the same issue with the Daniel Craig adaptation of the Stieg Larsson book. If it’s set in Sweden, with Swedish characters, hire Swedes!
Awful idea.
period.
I guess it hadn’t occurred to me till now that it’s be full on american. That’s… weird. Like other naysayers I wasn’t a big fan of the Akira anime, but that may have been largely due to the fact that I’d read the manga first, which is, to this date, one of the best comics I’ve ever read. (Also, if I remember correctly, it was the first comic I ever read. Other than Archie comics…)
Weird…
I absolutely love the anime. It makes sense to me, I don’t know why everyone was so confused. The remake is set in a future version of New York City, so I get why they are getting American actors. Are they aging the characters, though? Tetsuo and Kaneda are supposed to be high school kids. I’m not thrilled with the director choice, but I won’t judge it until I’ve seen it. I’m VERY interested in how they pull this off.
I mean, this really sums it up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jafd97yJFOI
ZOMG they are white washing the cast!!! I’ll go get my “Hollywood is racist” signs!!!
Anyway, I have little faith in this project but I’ll leave my mind open to it and might keep an eye on it as it evolves.
Needless to say this pisses me off to no end. Its exactly what they did to the Dead or Alive movie and we all know how that turned out. Instead of saying something objectionable I’ll keep my anger in check long enough to say this: the mainstream might be tainted by this movie, meaning from now on when I say “Akira” proudly, the unfamiliar will automatically associate that pride with the new adaptation.
Hopefully this film is either extremely good or extremely horrible. The worst case scenario for this film is to be “so so,” which is my fear.
@JohnVFerrigno They condensed a huge, intricate manga in to a two hour feature. I mean they did the best they could with it but, especially after reading the manga, you sort of see where it falters a lot. I mean it’s a fantastic film still, especially visually, but it pales way in to comparison in to the epic manga.
@Stepho Is that sarcasm? White washing is a serious thing that happens all the time in Hollywood. It’s pretty not cool. Even if this remake takes place in NYC, you people act like you never seen an Asian person walking around Manhattan. Sheesh.
People are so prone to hate. I don’t have high hopes for it, but I wouldn’t mind seeing it. I’m sure it won’t be teh akira we know and love and grew up with, but it could be interesting.
I wouldn’t mind seeing a Chris Pine, James Macavoy teamup for the film. If they put Robert Patinson in it It might completely turn me away.
@sircox but it’s silly to protest. I mean look at the uproar about the whitewashing for Airbender and that turned out brilliantly. *cough*
I hope Joaquin Phoenix doesn’t get it. He’s far too good an actor to star in this crap.
@itsbecca Oh yeah, well I agree with that. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near that turd, white or not. Some movies are pretty blatantly shitty about it. That counting cards movie with Kevin Spacey comes to mind.
I always saw Akira as throughly Japanese thematically, so seeing it transplanted to America would be very, very weird.