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As of yet there is no way to tell.

Well, let's see. It's anime being translated to live action; Strike One. It's being produced by an actor with zero experience outside of being pretty in several popular films; Strike Two. The script is by a former PC Gaming editor-in-chief; Strike Three.

And yet, it's being produced for American audiences, so maybe they'll attempt to pander to American audiences and we'll get a coherent ending?

If they're going back to the manga rather than just trying to adapt the original movie (which seems to be the case), they can avoid some of the problems caused by trying to squeeze 1800 pages of manga into 100 minutes of anime. Making it in two parts, and not operating under the assumption that the audience has the manga available to fill in the gaps, should help make the story clearer.

The Anime movie is excellent, and was directed by Otomo himself... Why re-made it? I think it's redundant

TETSUOOOOOOOOO!!!!

"It’s being produced by an actor with zero experience outside of being pretty in several popular films"

Not to be silly, but that's kind of a lame off-hand dismissal of DiCaprio. He's starred in some of the (arguably) best films of this decade (The Departed, Gangs of New York, The Aviator) and he's proven that he's actually a quality actor, as well as being involved in the production side of about a half dozen feature films.

He's not just a pretty face (and it's doubtful that's all he had at the outset...look at the Basketball Diaries, Marvin's Room and This Boy's Life). If none of his past films proved that he's in the upper tier of current actors, which I would argue they did, then at least The Departed proved that.

There's obviously all kinds of reasons why this movie is an uphill battle, but it sounds like Leo & co. mean to do it justice, at least, so I won't dismiss it.

"they can avoid some of the problems caused by trying to squeeze 1800 pages of manga into 100 minutes of anime."

Yeah, now they can run into a lot of the same problems by trying to squeeze 1800 pages of manga into 360-480 minutes of live-action film =8^).

Actually, I also wonder how they're going to deal with the fact that the movie is set in Neo-Tokyo, but Big Hollywood can't seem to produce a movie without any white people in it (or, in the case of the Rush Hour movies, an extremely out-of-place black comedian).

Why do we need this and what fresh angle could these guys possibly bring?

Apparently there are also plans for a Monopoly movie. Monopoly! So when that comes out, we'll get the board game of the movie of the board game.

I know a lot of adaptations are good (looking forward to Fincher directing a Gaiman-scripted Black Hole, though I know I may be disappointed), but the majority suck major balls. An Akira film would need to have an astronomical budget to achieve the scale of the anime. He may prove me wrong, but I'd advise everyone not to get their hopes up.

I'm guessing Gangs of New York will be a great reference point for a live action Akira: They'll probably both fail to adequately tackle the sprawling source material, be horribly written as a result of constant interference with the screenplay, badly acted by actors capable of far better work (with the exception of Diaz, she was just terrible all around,) and the only redeeming feature will be the production design.

"Gentlemen, this is the 21st century...
Try to have an open mind."

Frank Miller - Ronin # 2

Apologies, that is Ronin # 3 (not # 2 from which the quote came from).

I will approve if they are going to be true to the source material and film it in black & white.

It will be as good as the Kanye video.

Hopefully they take notes on Blade Runner's look and expand on that using today's visual effects technology.

Would it really make sense in an american context, the original manga was about post war japan and post hiroshima bombings. Along with student protests, it would be hard to make the movie without cutting out the original tone of the manga. Would this be sort of be about post 9/11? A bigger slant on genetic engineering and drug culture perhaps?

Hopefully it goes well, but how gross would Tetsuo be in live action!

DiCaprio is too old to be in it. They were high school kids in the Anime weren't they?

One thing I don't understand is why are all these manga/anime to live action movies have to be westernized? Neo-Tokyo becomes Neo-Manhattan; Japanese becomes Caucasian. It's not just Akira it's Dragonball too. Are they hoping to bring in the non-Anime fans or something? Is there just no Asian actors (because we know already from Hollywood they'll cast a Korean as Japanese, etc.) that they feel will be a big enough draw?

jccalhoun - Read the news item again: DeCaprio will produce the film. Nothing about him having an acting role in it.

Wow. An Akira film could be sweet in black and white.

What I'd really like to see, though, is an epic-length adaptation (maybe two or three films) of Nausicaa. I mean, I'd like to see it if it didn't suck.

Anime in North America has always been dumbed-down for the audience. I never truly realized this until I watched the original Japanese episodes of Battle Of The Planets and then later watching the corresponding NA version. I was disgusted with what I saw.
I loved BOTP when I was a kid and I agree that a 9 year old kid probably wouldn't get the involved storylines of Gatchaman. But, even then, I never did like 7-Zark-7 or what they did to Keyop.
I have yet to see how badly they butchered Astro Boy.

Anyway...as it is with Ferris Bueller's Godzilla, so it shall be with Arnie Grape's Akira.
And that's not a good thing...

Anyone who thinks that this cant be good at all... (while I tend to agree with that sentiment) should check out kanye west's video "Stronger".... i think if a music video, can capture it that well, imagine what a big budget film could do if they took the time and effort...

if a music video, can capture it that well, imagine what a big budget film could do if they took the time and effort…

Harp on the wrong things, and make it boring and tedious?

It's much easier to make a few minutes of film look good to a song, than to compose an entire feature-length movie.

Anime in North America has always been dumbed-down for the audience. I never truly realized this until I watched the original Japanese episodes of Battle Of The Planets and then later watching the corresponding NA version.

What was done to Gatchaman is a bit of a special case and it's because it was done for children. I doubt that's representative of the treatment other Anime gets.