Hollywood: Akira “Was Boring” & GitS “Underway”
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Feb 14, 2014 18:02 JST
- Tags: Adaptations, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Hollywood, Movies, Production Controversy
Hollywood is preparing to wreak its magic on yet more anime classics after the director of its Akira adaptation rubbished the original, saying there was “nobody interesting” in it and that he will doubtless do much better, whilst DreamWorks has finally announced its long-feared adaptation of Ghost in the Shell will be directed by the man famed for Snow White and the Huntsman.
Hollywood’s “Akira” adaptation – already notorious for ditching Neo-Tokyo as a setting along with most of the story of the original – is still ongoing after being repeatedly canned by its studio, and is now planned in “scaled-down” format which will allow for sequels without the bother of having to commit to a full adaptation.
Director Jaume Collet-Serra showed his disdain for the original cartoon version in a recent interview:
What is it you are bringing specifically that is going to make it yours?
Collet-Serra: I hope that I can bring strong characters. In the original source material, I don’t think the main characters are the protagonists. What I’m hoping is to bring characters.
That’s true. It’s one of those strange stories where you literally never see the main character that is the namesake of the film!
Collet-Serra: Nobody’s interesting. Tetsuo’s interesting because weird sh*t happens to him, and Kaneda is so two-dimensional. That’s part of the Japanese culture, they never have strong characters. They’re used as a way to move the other philosophy forward.
In a rare nod to it once having been set in Tokyo, he does concede he “is thinking of doing some location shooting in Japan.”
They are apparently planning an Akira Lite to see if they can spin out the movie into a series:
Then, if you’re interested, they’ll make “Akira 2 & 3” then you can get deeper into it. I love the world, a lot of people love that world, so why wouldn’t we indulge in it a little bit and see how it would be if it was real?
Like you say I don’t have to explain everything, but wouldn’t you like to spend two-hours in a world of “Akira” and follow a character and be like, “that’s cool”? That’s all I want to offer, is two-hours in a world you can actually feel. We’re working on it.
As if all this were not enough to be getting on with, Hollywood is now also actively working on a live action remake of Ghost in the Shell, the rights having been acquired by DreamWorks in 2008 when it may have seemed like a good idea.
The film is reportedly now to be directed by Rupert Sanders, whose sole major production credit to date is Snow White and the Huntsman.
No details of the inevitable liberties it will be taking with the story have emrged, but fans can presumably look forward to the epic tale of a courageous NSA major as he bravely battles cyber-terrorists amidst the spires of New Washington, although even in this case Hollywood will not have its work cut out doing better than Arise…
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Make your own IP you lazy Hollywood fucks. Leave Akira alone.
Or they could just do a proper and faithful adaptation of the original book, like they have in the past with other good films... but no, somehow games and anime always get asshole gold diggers to do their adaptations.
It's also funny how just because Akira and GITS were animated and foreign, somehow they're not considered to already be legitimate and good "movies". These new movies are basically looking to be remakes.
Psh, it's not laziness. The reason why hollywood stopped making their own IP is because they are complete jerkwads and managed to piss off every talented writer here in U.S. Why do you think there's only crappy movies, remakes, and comic adaptations? And by contrast, network television nowadays got tons of good series and stories. Well, I guess they are going to continue doing what they do best - pissing off every international writer as well.
"That’s part of the Japanese culture, they never have strong characters."
This guy does know how stupidly boring and cliche most Hollywood characters are, right? I foresee boring main character, a female for the sake of being female as the secondary main, lots of pointless explosions and a boring story that has nothing to do with the original. Poor Akira. :|
Let's see what hollywood has.
Bastardize men that always look like the impressive hulk. If he's not the hulk than he's some high-end slutty CEO with all the good looks. Females are always retarded know-it-all whores who always get the guy and as old as fuck.
Japanese culture is fine the way it is. It's not phony in terms of western culture. I prefer a japanese man beauty over some loud dumbass from the west.
It's gonna be about a guy named Akira who is changing into a monster, or some shit like that. Tetsuo and Kaneda will be childhood friends who are trying to stop him and save the world. I'm calling it now.
Nah, Akira's gonna be some kid along with Tetsuo and Kaneda, and they all go to high school and do all this high school drama and shit.
The characters thing is the exact excuse that was made for Street Fighter the movie.
I see nothing has changed since then.
At least the SF movie is a great comedy, though.
> how stupidly boring and cliche most Hollywood characters are, right?
Like most anime characters are any different?
The point is that he was talking like cliche characters were something wrong with anime, when it's one thing pretty common in any mainstream media.
Wake up, little Alice, wake up and come back from Wonderland!
Apperently you didn't see any anime, or you're a dumb troll. Nevermind, in any case your "opinion' is worthless.
"in any case your opinion is worthless."
I disagree, his opinion is as important as yours. You don't have to agree with his point of view but it doesn't make it any less valid compared to your opinion.
> Most
You retard.
Most anime characters are just shitty cardboard cutout cliches.
If you can't see that you are deluded.
If you refer to shitty moe and fanservice for those retards YES.
I thought they killed the project already.
A lot of people will be angry (If they even read my comment) But I do think that Akira is boring as hell and is way overrated.
Then why adapt it at all? If the people behind the production can't respect the source material it's already doomed. I'm not even a fan of Akira myself but I know clear injustice being done when I see it.
I agree with you, I think they should leave Akira alone. There's other much more interesting things to adapt to the big screen.
"Like what?"
Gunnm: Last Order
Just because I wanna see Hollywood make a CGI giant penis robot... I could settle for "just" an anime adoption though!
Like what?
No, I think Akira is a boring movie, too.
this Collet-Serra character talks like a 15 yr old kid.
it'll be an unmitigated fuckup and hopefully he'll never work again!
These industries are all filled with pompous pricks who have the mentality of 15 year old kids.
Am I the only one here that thinks Akira was not very good? It was beautifull to look at, the animation was amazing. But the story and characters were indeed pretty lame.
"Jaume Collet-Serra showed his disdain for the original in a recent interview"
This is the mentality all these adaptation and localization people have nowadays. No respect for the original material at all.
Fact of the matter is that these pathetic wannabe egomaniacs can't make anything decent themselves, so they latch onto existing IPs in a desperate attempt to prove that they can somehow be better.
And they always fail miserably.
Why is it Hollywood likes to buy the rights to Japanese classics, only to totally rewrite them and completely screw them up? The more Hollywood strays from the original, the crappier the result.
It's not even just Japanese classics.
It's everything. Nothing is safe.
True. I've seen Hollywood "adapt" some of my favorite books. The only thing left of the original was the title.
Oh great.....
The GitS movie was great, I love it, but Motoko didn't get much time to really flesh herself out. Her personality and the time allotted for character development in SAC was great. Oshii's characters tend to be too brooding and nothing else, so I wonder how this live action will turn out. Dream Works though..... I really don't like the sound of that. I'll definitely be seeing this once it comes out.
But my expectations are low.... live action adaptations have never been good.
Now a Deus Ex movie........
Motoko's character did her job in the GitS movie. She was the cyborg that had questions, and in turn made us question. I liked that she seemed robotic, cold, calculating, and inhuman at first but then it's like she showed off glitches, such as her need to go diving and her deep thoughts that came off exactly like glitches - strange and out of place. Out of place because they were too human for an android. And then at the end we saw how she didn't care to sacrifice all she had just for answers, her entire body and then risking her mind too. I don't see the need for the movie to show more of her than that, whatever was needed was shown. She represent a future where the lines between humanity and technology blur, when a cyborg can become so much of an android that she questions if even her own soul is still human.
sometimes you think "Oh Americans please fuck off" but then you think "well they're not all cunts"
I'll be honest, I didn't like Akira in the first place and thought they should've went with something like Ghost in the Shell in the first place or at least something less Japan-crazy
yeah, they are so fucking good, they are geniuses, and that is why they need to do stuff already done, by better people than them, with a infinite lesser budget, than do an "original" or "new" concept in a movie.
The directors comment only showcases his envy at his lack of creativity.
By the way who is that guy, haven't heard from him before, well i guess it is wikipedia time, to learn about another famous person that lacks real fame for me to have heard of him.
I'm sure he's a big deal... in his delusions.
Western film-makers need to keep their hands off the otaku fandom and anime. They have a reputation of bastardizing a series and turning it into hollywood tapioco shit. Japanese producers should not be so eager to throw their animation and culture at hollywood. The results have been often disasterous to both fans and the series.
Look at the butchering of Dragon-Ball adopted into a hollywood film. Goku went from funny happy clueless guy to some dorky guy with the hots for chichi. Chichi from a clueless/raging lunatic to some valley-girl. In a highschool. Ugh.
I sympathize with Hollywood. Akira is boring as fuck. And anyone can make a more entertaining Ghost in the Shell movie than Oshi.
Neither of them were supposed to be entertaining.
The only purpose of a film is to entertain.
FAIL comment is FAIL.
Ah, the sad, cynical world of today. Be born, get entertained, and die. :)
Whats the point of making a movie if it doesn't entertain people?
You seriously don't think a movie is capable of doing something other than entertaining people?
What the fuck. Anime more often than not have strong character-driven stories, much, much, muuuuch more than western animation, which often relies on slapstick and episodic conflicts before going back to the status quo.
And yet, yes, Akira is different. It is clearly a plot-driven story. That the director cannot see this difference and badmouths Japanese animation as a whole is ridiculous.
I'm dying to see what strong characters he will supposedly bring, but I can already see it: A young delinquentish cool-guy with a heart of gold, a funny sidekick and a love interest with daddy issues. It will be such strong and original characters, you guys.
"That’s part of the Japanese culture, they never have strong characters."
is this guy even human?
I thought his saying such makes it obvious that he is human. Only humans intentionally exert such ignorance.
I hate how hollywood bastardizes the otaku fandom. Then the animes become 'mainstream' and every feminist whore and politically correct religious baffoon is croaking about how the movie is so bad, or how the anime is or this or that.
I wish japanese directors would stop giving classic shows and animes over to the west so it can be butchered up and generalized to poor western tastes and standards. The reason why we, the true-otakus and not the otakus influenced by western culture, like anime so much is because anime is so different. Don't take that uniqueness away by killing classic shows for the $$$. Made in Japan should stay in Japan, no western directors involved majority of time they don't know wtf their doing.
Buy the rights over something popular and hiring a shitty director and some guy to make 3D graphics for over 90% is cheaper than hire a good director to make a good movie.
All they want os a famous name as bait.
Hollywood bastardizes everything nowadays.
You know one of the best anime movies ever was directed by an american right? Tekkonkinkreet was directed by Michael Arias. So, suck it.
You failed to mention that the man worked for a Japanese studio then, and thus not for Hollywood; he also had Japanese actors to play Japanese people and all that. And the whole point was about Hollywood making Japanese stuff into crap, not about Americans.
Thus, your reply pretty much is a fail.
Hollywood hasn't had an original idea in so long that they think screwing up other peoples ideas is a form of creativity.