If they cannot stick to the established story they should not use the title of that story.
Racebending "Akira"
- Thread starter Admiral Buzzkill
- Start date
But how would we be able to tell it from the five or six other movies with the same title at any given time?
Yeah, Ron Moore!!!
It's an adaptation, you know like Momoko, Miyako, and Kaoru, you know the Powerpuff Girls. And like that classic Disney story of Yuna and Stitch.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37BqYsNm_Ao[/yt]
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5thD9v-P_kQ[/yt]
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37BqYsNm_Ao[/yt]
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5thD9v-P_kQ[/yt]
You mean like The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum?
Fantastic
What makes you think they're not sticking to the established story? They're changing the setting and the ethnicity of the main characters, but those are minor changes.
The Americanised version will turn Akira into an al-Qaeda terrorist who can blow himself up without using explosives. Ken Aider and Ted Pseudo will be plucky, white kids who foil his plot by [insert plot mcguffin here].
I agree - it's not important to the story what ethnicity the characters are or what Neo-city the story takes place in. It just needs to be a good story. Which is admittedly unlikely, but the setting and character ethnicity are really pretty minor issues.
Not really. If his adaptation of the HP novels are anything to go by, he can write a hell of a lot better than even the original authors.
also...expect them to scrub out all the body horror elements. This will be a bunch of white guys exploding stuff & throwing themselves around using telepathic powers X-Men style...zzz.
This is why I kind of hope Ghost in the Shell never makes it to theatres. I'd love to see it in live action, but I don't really want to see it made by "Hollywood."
I dunno, Akira is a pretty seminal Japanese anime.
I don't get the big deal, when they remade other Japanese movies like Shall We Dance or The Ring or Dark Water and cast non-Asian actors, nobody complained about "racebending" then. Isn't it common practice when remaking a movie in another country to actually cast actors from that country? Was it also inexcusable to relocate Seven Samurai to the Old West and fill the cast with mostly white actors? Or remake Yojimbo with Clint Eastwood?
Not at all, but you notice they didn't CALL those movies "The 7 Samurai" and "Yojimbo." They weren't American remakes of Japanese films so much as Americanized versions based on the plots of (or "inspired by") the original Japanese films. They featured different characters, different events, different dialog... they were whole new stories based on the same themes. Just like "Ran" was based on King Lear and "Throne of Blood" was based on MacBeth... but they weren't King Lear or MacBeth. (Actually, those two were a lot closer to the source material than either of the westerns mentioned).
If they're going to make Akira straight from the original script, but with American actors, and still call it "Akira"... well, it just makes no sense to me.
I wouldn't have any problems with this if it were not the for the fact that American audiences are uniquely resistant to seeing films and television programs with foreign actors.
The Japanese may adapt American programs, but they also fill the theaters to see movies with our actors, as do the French, Indians, and Brazilians. We return the favor but once or twice a year, when a foreign film happens to cross over to receive a major audience. Sure, we happen to be a cultural superpower, but we should have the grace and open-mindedness to partake of other cultures more often than we do.
For these reasons, Akira with Justin Timberlake is something of a bummer.
The Japanese may adapt American programs, but they also fill the theaters to see movies with our actors, as do the French, Indians, and Brazilians. We return the favor but once or twice a year, when a foreign film happens to cross over to receive a major audience. Sure, we happen to be a cultural superpower, but we should have the grace and open-mindedness to partake of other cultures more often than we do.
For these reasons, Akira with Justin Timberlake is something of a bummer.
Can't agree more. It'd be like India's Bollywood adapting the screen play of Ben Hur, changed the location of the story to Mumbai, hired an all Indian cast, yet still titled the movie Ben Hur. I bet it will be a big WTF moment, too.
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