AKIRA's Impact on the World

The Impact of AKIRA

The Film that Changed Everything

[Source: Mangauk.com] On its explosive arrival in the West, Akira crossed the Pacific to catch the generation that grew up on the films of Spielberg and Lucas; it was also the generation that read adult superhero strips such as Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns. Akira, though, offered the shock-and-awe widescreen violence akin to that of enfant terrible live-action director, Paul Verhoeven. For example, both Akira and Verhoeven’s Robocop (1987) have a gory money-shot scene in their early minutes, in which a luckless bit-part player is graphically torn apart by a hail of bullets. Unsurprisingly, such imagery excited reviewers. 

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BARTKIRA

B A R T  K I R A 

In the days of old, deep in the dredges of the "Do the Bartman" VHS, there was a trailer.

In partnership with Chicken Tonight, Butterfinger, and CC Lemon, the early 90s execs of Fox and Toho made an animated short. An attempt to appeal to American consumers without having to spend a lot of money. Until a changing of the guard decided the kids needed more Poochie and it was lost... until today.

Bartkira is an animated parody mash-up of The Simpsons and Akira. Based on an idea by Ryan Humphrey articulated through comics, the concept was expanded with the Bartkira project, a comic collaboration of Simpsons fans, curated by James Harvey. In association with the comic, Moon Animate Make-Up producer Kaitlin Sullivan pitched the idea of an animated trailer to match and with the work of over fifty artists, produced the Bartkira animated trailer.

The AKIRA Project - Fan Made Film

The Akira Project is a crowd-sourced, non-profit project meant to create a live action fan trailer of AKIRA, the renowned manga-turned-anime film from the late 1980′s; a stunning example of both mediums as art forms. While Hollywood has been working on a live-action Akira movie for a few years now, we, as fans, wanted to take a shot at making our own adaptation. A chance to stick as close to the source material as possible. A chance to do Akira Justice.

We launched an Indiegogo campaign in July 2012 as part of a crowd sourcing effort to make this project come to life. Many people contributed not just financially but offered their time and talent to help the production that was shot in Montreal, Quebec from November 2-5th 2012. What started out as a simple idea between two guys having a beer (Hey! It'd be cool to see Kaneda ride his bike around Neo-Tokyo!), became a global endeavour, filled with adventures and hurdles, involving more than 40 artists in 12 different countries.

After a year and a half in post-production, we are proud to present the project to Akira fans the world over. We hope to have done justice to the timeless work of Katsuhiro Otomo and look forward to, someday, seeing the full scope of the Akira story translated to the big screen as a live-action.

For more information: www.akira-project.com

Facebook: fb.com/projectakira

Twitter: twitter.com/Project_Akira

Production company: www.cineground.com

Contact us at: info@akira-project.com

Akira: The Live-Action American Remake

On a budget... a very low budget...

"Everyone is up in arms over this AKIRA remake, 

so we thought we'd do something about it."

Americanized 'Akira' Moving Forward

TRON Star Offered Lead Role

[Source: Twitch.com] It seems that virtually from the day that Warner Brothers greenlit the US, live action version of Akira rumors have been circulating that Tron Legacy star Garrett Hedlund was director Jaume Collet-Serra's choice to take the lead role of Kaneda. It seems that the powers that be at WB now agree, as Twitch has learned that Hedlund has just received a formal offer to take the part.

Though best known for his part in Tron Hedlund's past roles are actually quite diverse, including stints in genre fare (Death Sentence), romcoms (Georgia Rule), kid friendly fantasy (Eragon), and straight up drama both mainstream (Friday Night Lights) and indie, with Hedlund headlining Walter Salles' upcoming Jack Kerouac adaptation On The Road.

Put Hedlund next to Gary Oldman and Helena Bonham Carter - who have both been offered key support parts - and it's clear that the producers are looking to fill the cast with recognizable names who are also actors with solid dramatic abilities, which is certainly preferable to many approaches. The curious part, however, is retaining the Japanese names despite shifting the setting to New York and the so-far all Caucasian cast.