I was disappointed when I heard that Akira would be getting a live-action adaptation, like I am with most anime films. But, I felt a sign of relief when I heard the project was “dead”. All of that was of course shattered with the news that project was still “alive”. And even hearing the “Iron Man” writers would be writing I was still disappointed.
Well, during a press event for “The Book of Eli”, Gary Whitta was asked about his involvement in the early draft for the Akira film.
Thanks to comingsoon:
“…I haven’t worked on it for about a year,” says Whitta, “…The version I worked on was about going back to the source and doing the manga version. We were going to adapt the whole six-episode graphic novel.”
Last I heard was that the film would be set in “Neo-Manhattan”(of course, I mean where else?). And that they would be “Americanizing” it. So, Whitta’s version couldn’t have been nearly that bad, right?
Whitta also commented on Katsuhiro Otomo’s, the creator of the manga, involvement in the film, “We got notes from [Otomo] and we kept in touch, but we never had a formal meeting or anything. The script I worked on was very, very preliminary. We did a couple of drafts of the script but, when I was there at least, it never got wrapped up to the point where I think he would get really hands on.”
Okay having the creator involved does give me some hope for the film, but wasn’t the creator of Dragonball somewhat involved in “Dragonball Evolution”? And we all know what kind of masterpiece that was, right?
With the film in the hands of the writers of “Iron Man”, its now a question of how much(if any) of what Whitta made would be used, “They don’t keep you in the loop after you’re done,” says Whitta, “…now I go on the internet to find out what’s happening with it like everyone else.”
I’m not surprised that they don’t keep him informed on whats going on. Whitta is no longer on the project so, why would they let him know whats going on? But, if you ask me they should at least expand on his idea. I mean, at least he wants to adapt the Graphic Novel. But, either way I can’t get excited about this movie, not in the least.
The original still holds up today, and it should be left alone. After all anime is only good when its animated. Or at least have a Japanese studio handle it, they for one know how to make entertaining live-action anime films.
Are you excited about a live-action Akira?