{"id":20023,"date":"2023-11-05T17:53:34","date_gmt":"2023-11-05T22:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20023"},"modified":"2023-11-05T19:04:08","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T00:04:08","slug":"live-action-akira-would-be-difficult-to-remake-says-albert-hughs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20023","title":{"rendered":"Live-Action “Akira” Would be Difficult to Remake, Says Albert Hughes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Albert Hughes<\/a>, who garnered worldwide attention with his feature film directorial debut, Menace II Society<\/strong><\/em>, has publicly spoken about the production struggles that have long plagued the proposed live-action Akira<\/em><\/strong> movie. The remake has been in development since as early as the 1990s, the decade when the filmmaker’s first project was released to critical acclaim.<\/p>\n

At one point both Albert and his twin brother, Allen Hughes, who co-helmed Menace II Society<\/em><\/strong>, From Hell<\/em><\/strong> and The Book of Eli<\/em><\/strong> together, were attached to direct the live-action Akira<\/em><\/strong><\/a> movie. On a new episode of Happy Sad Confused<\/em><\/a>, host Josh Horowitz spoke with Albert Hughes on a variety of topics, including how he and his brother were at one point attached to helm the live-action Akira<\/em><\/strong> film.<\/p>\n

During the interview, Hughes shared that Warner Bros., which acquired the rights to adapt the 1988 Japanese animated action movie into a live action feature in 2002, has “a dirty little secret” behind the production of the remake. The secret includes the fact that even after the studio put $12 million into the Akira<\/strong><\/em> live-action film, it has been hiding behind its desire to cast a big name action for the project. Hughes added that the company’s executives “were scared to make it, and you could smell it after a while.”<\/p>\n

The filmmaker’s full statement about his involvement on the Akira<\/strong><\/em> live-action remake states: “I was deep. The dirty little secret on that is that they tried it many times. They were $9 million in by the time we got on. I had another 3 on the project, so they’re in 12 right now.<\/p>\n

“I had a production designer, a whole office, pre-viz, and it all came down to this BS stuff in town like ‘oh, the right casting.’ It’s like, well Akira<\/em><\/strong> is the name, it’s the IP, but they were scared to make it, and you could smell it after a while. It’s like, ‘Well why did you get me involved?<\/p>\n

“This was after Book of Eli<\/strong><\/em> when Warner Bros. opened the vault and said ‘What do you want?’ and I said, ‘I want Akira<\/em><\/strong>.’ I was on that for a little under a year\u2026 and I’m like ‘They’re not really ready to make this.’<\/p>\n

“They’re using the excuse of casting, but that’s BS. And then you know the whitewashing thing comes in to play, like are we gonna hire Asian actors or white actors, and you know what, I’m not trying to get involved in all that. I’m fine with doing the original the way the original needs to be done, and I think the IP is bigger than any one actor.”<\/p>\n

As Hughes explained, he wasn’t the first director to have been attached to helm the live-action Akira<\/em><\/strong> remake. Warner Bros. also wasn’t the first studio that had acquired the rights to the movie. In the 1990s, Sony Pictures originally acquired the rights to adapt Katsuhiro Otomo’s famed 1982 post-apocalyptic six-book manga series.<\/p>\n

Once Warner Bros. acquired the rights to the franchise in the early 2000s, several creative teams become attached to, and then drop out of, the remake. The proposed live-action film has now included over a dozen different writers and helmers, as well as multiple actors.<\/p>\n

Director Stephen Norrington and scribe James Robinson were originally attached before their 2003 superhero movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen <\/em><\/strong>received negative reviews. They were replaced by Ruairi Robinson (The Last Days on Mars<\/em><\/strong>) and Gary Whitta (who penned the screenplay for The Book of Eli<\/em><\/strong> for The Hughes Brothers to helm).<\/p>\n

Robinson was eventually replaced by the Hughes before first Allen and then Albert left the project. Later Jaume Collet-Serra (Black Adam<\/em><\/strong>) was attached. But after he left, Akira<\/em><\/strong> was offered to Mad Max<\/em><\/strong>‘s George Miller, Fast & Furious<\/em><\/strong>‘ Justin Lin, and Get Out<\/em><\/strong>‘s Jordan Peele<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Actors who were considered to play various characters in the Akira<\/em><\/strong> live-action remake include Andrew Garfield, Robert Pattinson and Michael Fassbender for Tetsuo; Garrett Hedlund, Michael Fassbender, Chris Pine, Justin Timberlake, Joaquin Phoenix, Paul Dano and Michael Pitt for Kaneda; Gary Oldman and Ken Watanabe for The Colonel; Helena Bonham Carter for Lady Miyako; and Kristen Stewart for Ky Reed. Keanu Reeves and Keira Knightley were also considered for unspecified roles.<\/p>\n

The most recent iteration of the live-action Akira<\/em> <\/strong>film was announced with Thor: Ragnarok<\/em><\/strong> director Taika Waititi<\/a> attached as the helmer. The Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit<\/b><\/i> screenwriter was also set to co-scribe the movie with Michael Golamco (Always Be My Maybe<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n

However, the project was delayed by the production last year’s third Thor<\/strong><\/em> sequel, Love and Thunder<\/em><\/strong>. The live-action Akira<\/strong><\/em> remake could potentially be further delayed by Waititi’s upcoming Star Wars<\/em><\/strong> film, continuing the notoriously troubled production that Hughes was a part of more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n

In addition to penning the manga series, Otomo also directed and co-penned the script with Izo Hashimoto for the animated movie. Set in the wake of the third World War, the Akira<\/strong><\/em> manga series and animated film follow the leader of a biker gang in Neo-Tokyo as he tries to save his friend from a medical experiment.<\/p>\n

Check out more of Karen Benardello’s articles.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Albert Hughes, who garnered worldwide attention with his feature film directorial debut, Menace II Society, has publicly spoken about the production struggles that have long plagued the proposed live-action Akira movie. The remake has been in development since as early as the 1990s, the decade when the filmmaker’s first project was released to critical acclaim….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":20025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[10965,11187,10964,18834,300,18835,402],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLive-Action "Akira" Would be Difficult to Remake, Says Albert Hughes | Cinema Daily US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Director Albert Hughes shares the casting challenges of adapting the animated Akira movie and manga into a live-action film.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20023\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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