Zac Efron 'to play lead in Akira remake'

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/nov/08/zac-efron-akira-shotaro-kaneda

I luv zak!!1!!! XD




He is the blue-eyed star of the High School Musical series and dream date for teenage girls across the globe. It is a classic cult Japanese anime and manga comic which maintains a heady reputation among fans of the genres more than 20 years after its initial release. Now, according to reports in the blogosphere, the terms Zac Efron and Akira may become forever connected after the actor was touted to star in a planned Hollywood remake.

In what would be one of the strangest casting decisions of all time, Efron is reportedly in line for the leading role of Shotaro Kaneda in Warner Bros's live-action English language version, according to both the Bloody Disgusting and Slash Film blogs. The project is being lined up as a two-part adaptation, with From Hell's Hughes brothers set to direct. Bloody Disgusting also reports that Morgan Freeman has been offered the role of The Colonel, the head of a sinister government project in the original film and comic book series.

Akira was originally a 2,182-page manga epic which was adapted by director Katsuhiro Otomo into a two-hour film. Despite its complex, densely packed storyline, it has gained huge popularity over time since its release and helped to fuel the growth of anime's popularity outside of Japan.

The Hollywood version would presumably transport the action from the original's Japanese setting to a US location. In Otomo's film, the action takes place in Neo-Tokyo, a city built on an artificial island in Tokyo bay following the destruction of the original Tokyo in an explosion 30 years previously. Akira is the name of a young boy whose powers led to the disaster. Kaneda, the role apparently snapped up by Efron, is a biker and gang leader who discovers that his childhood friend Tetsuo is developing similar destructive powers.

Efron has somewhat hedged his bets since the most recent High School Musical film, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, which appeared in 2008. He has appeared in teen-friendly fare such as 17 Again and the recent The Life and Death of Charlie St Cloud, and also more adult-oriented movies such as Me and Orson Welles.
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:|
 
I facepalmed so hard when I read this on reddit yesterday that I broke my nose.

It's not exactly a huge disappointment though since my expectations for this were already practically nonexistent.
 
He's a pretty good actor, High School Musical aside. I thought he did a damn fine job in 17 Again, which is hilarious. The movie may suck, but Zac Efron has shown potential. Robert Pattinson doesn't suck either, he just got pigeon-holed into a three-movie contract without parole.
 
If anyone has watched the movie, Kaneda is a typical immature teenager, I don't really see how Zac Effron can mess up a character like Kaneda...not to mention the fact that he looks like him too.

I'm obviously not getting my hopes up with this film and when it does come out, I won't be comparing it to the manga or the animated film, I'll treat it as something separate.

It still has the potential to be really good if given enough care.
 
The question I have, frankly, is who is producing, directing, and financing this movie? That will have far more influence on movie quality.
 
I think I just threw up in my mouth. here was hoping to see an awesome movie but now I'll have to pass seeing it in the theater with 50,000 screaming girls
 
Pissed off manga/anime fans you say?

Makes me feel all warm and fuzy inside.
 
Oh... oh dear. The only good thing Effron's ever done was firefly, and that was a tiny role when he was about 13 or so as a young version of Simon Tam in a flashback...

Maestro said:
He's a pretty good actor, High School Musical aside. I thought he did a damn fine job in 17 Again, which is hilarious. The movie may suck, but Zac Efron has shown potential. Robert Pattinson doesn't suck either, he just got pigeon-holed into a three-movie contract without parole.
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You're defending both Effron and Pattinson?? Oh dear... If either of them cared about their credibility as actors they wouldn't take such crappy, fangirl-prone roles...
 
I don't think you understand how being an actor works: you don't start out with awesome roles, you get roles given to you and you take them or starve. In Efron's case, Disney made him an actor. In Pattinson's case, he didn't read or even know what the book was about (pretty typical for actors), and signed a three-movie legally binding contract. Just because they've been pigeonholed into shitty roles doesn't mean they're bad actors. New talent is new talent.

In another 5 or 10 years no one, no one is going to remember either HSM or Twilight. If they can make a successful career in mediocre/crappy movies and prove their worth, that opens much more important doors later. Leonardo DiCaprio anyone? He didn't start out in movies like Inception.
 
Zac might not be a bad actor, but there's no way I buy him as the leader of a biker gang. :|
 
morgs said:
What's Akira o_O
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One of the most technically impressive (and last) movies ever animated entirely without the use of computer processing or colouring. Also a really, really silly ultra-violent action movie with paper-thin (ohohoho) characterisation and the archetypical nonsense anime ending sequence.

So basically, if they make a live-action version it's guaranteed to suck balls, because whatever appeal it has is entirely tied up in the fact that it was painted with some paints that had technically never been seen on film before. Oh ok, the soundtrack was interesting.
 
the only way they can make this movie good if is they cancel it
 
Because the japanese live action movies worked so well.

Eh, Zac is slighty better suited to this role than Kaneda. Light's a prissy, sporty, popular, over-achieving school kid after all. That's like, all of Zac's characters right there. I can't see him doing evil, though. I mean, he has to be able to nail the laugh.
 
Warped said:
I think I just threw up in my mouth. here was hoping to see an awesome movie but now I'll have to pass seeing it in the theater with 50,000 screaming girls
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Keep in mind that the 50,000 screaming girls will have to go through watching Tetsuo's grotesquely disturbing transformation, that has to be some kind of redemption.

And I think Zac can do it, he's not that bad of an actor, and I think he's shown potential.
 
Hazard.Squared said:
Keep in mind that the 50,000 screaming girls will have to go through watching Tetsuo's grotesquely disturbing transformation, that has to be some kind of redemption.
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Nope. They'll change the ending and everything will turn out peachy.
 
I found this article. Whether it's true or not I don't know but worth the read I think:
2 latest info about AKIRA, whether they’re good news or bad, it’s up to you..

Remember that crazy rumor about Zac Efron has been either offered the lead role in the live action adaptation of AKIRA, or that he’s in talks or that everything is still “far from a done deal”? Via Digital Spy, those of you who didn’t like that rumor could now relax a bit because there’s no truth to it at all..

Zac Efron is reportedly not in the running to star in a live-action adaptation of Akira… Representatives for the Hughes Brothers, who are directing the movie, have said that the rumors about Efron playing the lead role in Akira are “not true”.

Ok, next stop, Screenrant has read the script, written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, and posted a script review. Those of you familiar with AKIRA anime films would find it a bit offensive because of the many changes that this American take will do to some of the characters and the whole material. Here’s excerpt..

The story has been “Americanized,” with the center of the action taking place in New Manhattan after the decimation of the city ( an incident resembling a nuclear bomb explosion), has been blamed on the work of unknown terrorists, with the iconic shot of Akira as the sole survivor clutching his teddy bear standing solemn in the crater at ground zero.

Flash-forward to sometime in the future where protagonists Kaneda and Travis (gone is the name Tetsuo – why not just keep it? ) belong to one of several biker gangs that control the burned out old Manhattan, while the shiny new Chinese-owned-and-invested “New Manhattan” glitters back at them like a star that cannot be touched.

The story somewhat follows the animated film but introduces a new character, Ray Arcman, who is the mad scientist that created Akira by using psychic and kinetic experiments on children including the three Espers (the elderly looking 10-year-olds from the animated film).

Asian gangsters run the underworld along with several motorcycle gangs (sadly, the “Clowns” are not in the film). Illegal drugs are still in demand and the gangs in turn have to pay tribute to their bosses, the ”Packies” (Pakistanis).

Liberties are taken with some of the characters: Princess Miyako is now an elderly trash-collecting lady in Old Manhattan and the Colonel’s part doesn’t come off as strong as he did in the animated version.

There are also continuity problems with the script. In one scene, the Colonel sets off a claymore mine in order to block the approaching Black Ops army and is wounded. Yet, in another scene after this, when he is captured, The Colonel is able to take out two military policeman and operate a .50 caliber mini-gun in a helicopter gunship in order to save Kaneda – then he promptly disappears for the remainder of the film.

Yes, Travis (Tetsuo) does expand and morph into a ballooning human amoeba, but only for one short scene. I think we can all agree that this is one of the landmark, crucial scenes that needs to be in the film, yet it’s only a mere fragment.

Kaneda gets a Tech 9 machine pistol instead of the high-tech-looking plasma-type weapon that was used in the original anime, and on the iconic Akira poster.

AKIRA, based on anime artist Katsuhiro Otomo’s six-volume graphic novel masterwork, is set in a futuristic post-nuclear war Tokyo in 2019 where a teen biker gang member is subjected to a government experiment which unleashes his latent powers. The gang’s leader must find a way to stop the ensuing swathe of destruction but the movie version has always been planned to be set in “New Manhattan,” a metropolis that was rebuilt after being destroyed 31 years ago. To be directed by The Hughes Bros., Produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s company, Appian Way, along with producer Andrew Lazar
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http://ramascreen.com/zac-efron-will-not-star-in-akira-live-action-movie-directed-by-the-hughes-bros-story-has-been-americanized/
 
If that is true... I think I might swear myself off of movies forever.

If it isn't... someone really knows how to f*ck with the fandom.
 
Travis?

Travis?!

****ing hell that sounds awful.

Edit: Wait, wait, I should've said

MORE LIKE TRAVISTY. AHAHAHAHAHA kill me.
 
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