Director Jaume Collet-Serra says the live-action version of Akira hopes to correct the original’s “two-dimensional” characters.
It’s been a long and winding road for the live action version Akira. Since Warner Bros. first announced that it had secured the rights to make the film, it’s gone through a string of writers, directors, and potential cast members almost as long as the manga on which its based. That said, current director Jaume Collet-Serra recently opened up about the ongoing process of getting the film made, as well as what he hopes to do and bring to the live action adaptation.
“The only way to do a live version of Akira is to take the spirit and adapt it,” said Collet-Serra. “It will be as different as the anime was from the manga.” That said, he affirmed that the live action version, as longs as its in his care, won’t wind up watered down to appeal to wider audiences. “I think you cannot make a movie about Akira and hope that everyone understands it,” he said. “If you’re a fan, you already know what it’s about and you’ll see it’s part of the same world, but trying to oversimplify it would be a mistake. I think if at some point a character tries to explain it to the audience at the end of the second act, that’s a problem.”
That being said, he affirmed that he will leave some personal touches on the story, namely its characters. “Nobody’s interesting. Tetsuo’s interesting because weird shit 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,” he said. In turn, he hopes to recreate the characters to be “strong” and to leave viewers with a capturing mystery that will bring them back for “Akira 2 & 3.
Source: Coming Soon
Published: Feb 10, 2014 10:09 pm