Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The American remake of Akira, the 1988, mind-bendingly crazed/ brilliant Japanese anime film, has gone from being a two-film, $230 million adaptation directed by the Hughes brothers and starring Brad Pitt and Keanu Reeves to being busted down by Warner Bros. to a $90 million single film directed by the guy who made the Paris Hilton-starring House of Wax and Liam Neeson’s Unknown. And today, it was announced that Garrett Hedlund (a.k.a. the guy who played Jeff Bridges’ kid in Tron: Legacy), will play the lead role of Kaneda. Which totally makes sense, you guys, seeing as how Hedlund is a 27 year old white man and Kaneda is a 15 year old Asian boy.
Yes, that’s right—looks like the new remake is going to completely obliterate Akira’s origins and make it a wholly Americanized film about attractive twentysomethings, instead of a ragtag gang of teenage bikers, as was the case in the original. So, to just to make this clear, the Akira remake is going to suck. I mean, there’s no way it can’t. If you’ve seen the visually stunning original, you know there’s no way this film can be accomplished under $100 with an inoffensive block of wood in the main role. Oh well. At least Uwe Boll’s not directing it. That’s something, I guess.
What do think of the Akira remake news?
Source: The AV Club