Warner Bros. Hires Harry Potter Screenwriter to Polish up AKIRA Script

Maybe all these problems we've been hearing about surrounding Warner Bros. live-action film adaptation of Akira have been true. The studio announced today that they've hired Steve Kloves to polish up the script most recently written by Albert Torres, but has also passed through the hands of several other screenwriters prior. Kloves is best known for adapting seven of the eight Harry Potter movies for the studio, so they obviously trust this guy to make sense of the script and story. 

The last thing we heard on this movie is that the studio offered the lead role of Kaneda to Brad Pitt, but he passed on the offer. Mila Kunis also recently left the project to star in Oz, The Great and Powerful. The studio is looking to cast a major star in the leading role to help secure their huge investment on the film. They must not be confident about the product they have if they feel they need to cast a big star, that doesn't fit the lead characters description at all, to help bring success to the film. At this point it's clear that the studio has taken control of this film adaptation, which means it's not going to end up being the film we all hoped to see. Every descison they make will come from the studio accountants, and not the artistic talent. It doesn't seem like the fans have been to happy with the choices they've made far. The studio is making things more difficult than they have to be. 

Albert Hughes is directing the film, which was the studios first big mistake. Warner acquired the Akira rights three years ago from publisher Kodansha and set it up with Andrew Lazar's Mad Chance with Appian Way's Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson Killoran. Hughes and his brother, Allen Hughes. will also produce.

If this movie eventually gets made I hope to hell that Kloves can help turn it into something that we want to see.

There's no release date that's been set for the film and as of right now no one has officially been cast. Here's a description of the the most recent script written by Torres, and all the changes that have been made to the story so far.

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. 

GeekTyrant Homepage