Akira Remake FTL

I just caught the latest edition of Extra Life Radio, and I received a bit of news that lowered my spirits. Warner Brothers is remaking Akira, and it is set to release in 2009. Apparently, some two-bit nobody is slated to direct one of the finest and most widely celebrated anime films of all time. Leonardo DiCaprio is set to act in the starring role as Kaneda and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is to play opposite DiCaprio as Tetsuo. The fact that these two actors are immensely talented is the only thing allowing me to retain any semblance of hope that this film will be any good.

Akira is one of the greatest animes ever, period. It is a landmark title that truly brought anime to a western audience for the first time in 1988. At the time, the animation, art design, writing, and story were all incredibly revolutionary and really pushed the envelope of what people thought was possible for animation as an art form. Inspiring other classics like Ghost in the Shell, Akira deserves to remain untouched by some big name studio just looking to cash in off of such a storied and beloved franchise.

At one point in the early 1990s, Sony scrapped the picture after the budget projections rose to over $435 million. This is no surprise considering the original film is comprised of 2,212 shots, 160,000 individual pictures, and 327 unique colors. All of these figures were simply mindblowing in terms of their scale. To think how those numbers would translate to a live action film is quite amazing. The film easily portrays some of the most awesome destruction in all of cinema. The entire city of Neo-Tokyo is fully destroyed two separate times, and the second destruction sequence takes place over the last 20 minutes or so of the film. The amount of money that would need to be spent on setting this up is simply extraordinary. It's also worth mentioning that Tetsuo racks up an enormous body count, easily surpassing Neo from The Matrix trilogy. Thats right, the main villain in Akira lays waste to more people in 124 minutes than Neo does in the entire Matrix trilogy.

To be clear, I would have much less of a problem with this if Katsuhiro Otomo was involved with the project and was given creative control of the film. Sadly, it has been stated that in no way will he be involved with this production, and that is indeed quite tragic. Please WB, don't destroy a franchise that I love... I beg of you.

/end rant

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