DiCaprio To Do Live Action AKIRA Remake

Leonardo DiCaprio may be getting fitted for a red leather jacket soon as his production company, Apian Way, is developing a live action remake of the classic animae feature Akira for Warner Brothers.

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Gary Whitta, who wrote the Hughes Brothers upcoming The Book Of Eli, has been hired to transform the futuristic story of a teenage bike gang member who is subjected by the government to an experiment which gives him uncontrolable powers into aworkable live-action film. Whitta has his work cut out for him. A live-action Akira has been in development at Warners for a long time with producers like Jon Peters and Basil Iwanyk and directors Stephen Norrington and Pitof taking a shot at the material.

Variety is also chiming in on the story, stating that the adaptation will actually be two films, with the first fasttracked for a summer 2009 release. The films setting of Neo-Tokyo, a city rebuilt after a nuclear explosion years earlier that figures into the plot, is being changed to New Manhattan. Ruairi Robinson is set to direct.

I first saw Akira in the fall of 1990 on a bootleg video with no English dubbing or subtitles. The friend who brought it to my college apartment sat there and tried to fill in the backstory on who was who, but there was no need. Director Katsuhiro Otomo's visual sense conveyed the story in a way that never relyed on dialogue to explain relationships and plot. I've gone back to the filom several times since, including seeing it digitally projected in New York City a few years back, and it never fails to impress.

Can a live action version live up to the standard set by the original?

SPEED RACER Teaser Poster

Below is the first teaser poster for next summer's live action animae adaptation Speed Racer. Although you can click on the poster to make it ginormous, you might want to check it out at your local cineplex, as it is lenticular (that cool 3D thing).

SPEED RACER Trailer!

This morning, we reported on the release of several photos from the Wachowski Brothers upcoming cartoon adaptation Speed Racer. And now we have the film's trailer, which hits theaters tomorrow.

Living up to the promise of the photos, the trailer captures the kinetic look of the original Japanese cartoon in live action. From the vibrant colors to the fast dialogue delivery of the businessman haranging Speed to the two glimpses of the Mach 5 flying through the air courtesy of its auto jacks, this looks to be the strongest attempt to translate a stylized comic art style into live action since Dick Tracy. It's fast becoming one of my most anticpated films of next summer.

First Look: SPEED RACER

Here he comes! Here comes live action Speed Racer!

USAToday has given us our first look at the Wachowski Brothers live action adaptation of the classic Japanese cartoon and it looks as if they've found a way to translate the anime's kinetic look to the real world.


Looking back at the 1970s, it certainly seemed to be a heyday for Japanese television imports- Astro Boy, Ultraman, Starblazers, Johnny Socko And His Giant Robot. But one show, which all my friends and I would gather at our one friend's aunt's house to watch, seems to have left the biggest impression on our pop culture memory- Speed Racer. We couldn't get enough of the adventures of world famous teen race car driver Speed, his girlfriend Trixie and the rest of the Racer clan. When he wasn't winning races, Speed fought bad guys using the Mach Five, his race car laden with so many gadgets as to make James Bond's Astin Martin envious.


Since its original syndicated run in the '70s the series saw a revival in the 1990s, airing on MTV and then Cartoon Network and Boomerang. The show was name checked in songs by Tori Amos, The Presidents of the United States of America and Alpha Team and has been mentioned on such television shows such as The Simpsons, Scrubs, Friends and Robot Chicken.

The picture below shows that the Wachowski's certainly are letting their imagination run riot. The twisted loop of race track reminds me of the loops I would make with those old Hot Wheels flexible plastic tracks.


Wait a minute. In the above photo, the car has the classic Mach 5 silhouette , but the number 6 on it. An unintentionally released spoiler?


Man, does John Goodman look like his cartoon counterpart, Speed's dad Pops Racer, here.

To fans of the cartoon, this is certainly a familiar sight. Speed's younger brother Spridle (Paulie Litt) and his pet monkey Chim-Chim stowing away in the trunk of the Mach 5 and causing no end of humorous complications in Speed's life.

Head over to USAToday for more pictures, including one of Emile Hirsch as Speed in his classic blue shirt and red kerchief and Matthew Fox as the mysterious Racer X.

Speed Racer zooms into theaters on May 9, 2008.

First ASTRO BOY Picture And Poster

Imagi Animation Studios, the folks behind the computer animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, TMNT, earlier this year, have released teaser poster and the first still from their upcoming adaptation of the classic anime series Astro Boy.

Set in a future where robots are commonplace, Astro Boy is an atomic powered robot built by a scientist to replace his own son who was killed in a car accident. Astro Boy started life as a manga in 1951 by Osamu Tezuka before being adapted into cartoon form in 1963. It was later broadcast Stateside on NBC, becoming the first Japanese cartoon to air outside of Japan.


Heading up the project is animation director Jakob Jensen, formerly of Dreamworks Animation. In a weekend interview with the Hollywood Reporter, he explained that although he was unfamiliar with the character when first approached, he was captivated by the Pinocchio-like story.

I was intrigued with the possibility of the project. I'm in the process of educating myself about the Astro Boy universe, and I love what I see. Astro Boy utilizes very classical story principles of the hero's journey that we see in all good storytelling around the world… Astro Boy has the moral underpinning and strong emotional resonance that a lot of animation today is lacking.

Astro Boy should be hitting theaters in 2009.

Via FirstShowing.

GRAVEYARD OF THE FIREFLIES To Get Live Action Redo

Akiyuki Nosaka's semi-autobiographical novel Graveyard of the Fireflies, which was adapted by director Isao Takahata and Studio Ghibli into the classic anime feature, is set to be made as a live-action film by Tokyo-based Pal Entertainment. Taro Hyugaji, who previously directed Portrait Of The Wind (2005), is set to direct.

The film’s story follows a young brother and sister who are trying to survive on their own following the firebombing of Kobe City. Studio Ghibli’s adaptation is considered by many anime fans to be exceptionally well done and heartbreaking.

Originally set to be directed by Kazuo Kuroki, pre-production on the live-action adaptation was suspended when Kuroki died of stroke last April.