Leonardo DiCaprio is allegedly producing the live-action remake of 1988’s seminal anime, Akira.
This two-movie franchise will be based more on Otomo’s six-book graphic novel series rather than his condensed story which was used for the 1988 film. 28-year old Irish visionary Ruairi Robinson takes the director’s seat and Gary Whitta is the first-time screenwriter tackling the sprawling narrative described as ‘Blade Runner meets City of God’.
This news could either be wonderful . . . or terrible. The original film broke new ground in showing that cartoons weren’t just for kids, and pointed out a whole world of fantastic adult animation in Japan. It also saw some of the best 2D animation ever seen, still standing strongly beside modern films.
Can DiCaprio’s team capture the hectic punk atmosphere of Neo-Tokyo and the gangland culture of Kaneda and the Clowns. And what form will Akira himself take when they dig up his remains beneath the Olympic stadium? Will he still have that all-consuming destructive energy he had in 1988, will he have lost that spark, or will he have evolved again?
