ALMOST MONUMENTAL

According to Bloody Disgusting, Warner Bros. Pictures is trying to get the ball rolling on the live-action remake of Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo's classic anime/manga that takes place in a future cyberpunk version of Tokyo called Neo-Tokyo. The story follows a gang of teenage bikers, and some crazy stuff happens. If you haven't seen it, I suggest checking it out for the fantastic animation if nothing else. Word on the street is that Irish director Ruairi Robinson is attached to direct the live-action remake (previously the director of Blade, Stephen Norrington, was attached to it). You probably don't know who Robinson is. I did some research and I found out that he's mainly known for his short films, one of which (Fifty Percent Grey) was Oscar nominated for best animated short in 2001. The more recent short film he's known for is called The Silent City, whose cast includes Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins, Sunshine). After watching both of his short films, I could definitely see why Warner Bros. Pictures wants him for Akira. The real question is... is it possible for a version of Akira to be any good without the detailed hand-drawn animation that perhaps it is most famous for?

While you ponder that, you can view his two short films below (*Warning* both include violent content in the PG-13 to R range)...

Fifty Percent Grey (2001)

The Silent City (2006)

By Shagr

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 1:23 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.