Well. This is certainly a piece of news that might anger some.
In an interview with Coming Soon promoting his latest movie Non-Stop starring Liam Neeson, Jaume Collet-Serra discussed the original Akira and his thoughts on his live action adaptation, should it ever come to fruition. While he was very praising of certain aspects of it, he certainly feels that he can improve it…
“You have to be respectful of the source material” Collect-Serra said of Akira. “Otomo adapted his own work from a manga into an anime and both things are completely different and genius. The only way to do a live version of Akira is to take the spirit and adapt it. It will be as different as the anime was from the manga. 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.”
He then went on to add, “”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.”
While it’s not a done deal that Jaume Collet-Serra will direct the movie that has spent the better part of a decade in “Development Hell”, he seems very sure of his vision for the movie.
What are your thoughts on Jaume Collet-Serra’s vision for a live action Akira?
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Originally published February 11, 2014. Updated April 11, 2018.
