For the past year, Weston worked as a production artist on Albert Hughes’ planned live-action version of Akira. Now although Hughes is off the project, WB are confident that a new director will be found and the movie will go forward..whether we like it or not! Cinemablend have come across some details that Weston posted on his blog, detailing his redesigned concepts for Kaneda's iconic motorcycle..
on my first day on the job I was asked to “redesign the bike”! Yes, that’s right: THE bike. I was as horrified as you are; probably more, ‘cos I was the one the fanboys were going to come for when they inevitably declared it a travesty.
In my defence, I would say at least I brought a love of Katsuhoro Otomo’s art and an admiration of his design aesthetic to the table. I didn’t want to stray too far away from the classic design. However, one has to admit that faithful real-life reproductions of Kaneda’s bike do look a little bit “kitsch” … So the version I created was a bit meatier and nastier: the tyres were bigger, the engine was bigger, some of the casing was stripped off to expose the workings beneath. Kaneda was in a motorcycle gang that used these vehicles as weapons, so we gave it a more beaten-up look, dirtier, a few dents and scratches here and there.
In silhouette you’d have no problem recognising it as the Akira Bike, but the lighting would reveal a whole new level of texture and detail… There was a short discussion about making it black, but I did my bit to keep it red, albeit a darker, bergundy hue. I believe BMW in Munich had begun production of a working model, but I can’t vouch for that. I produced tons of other character designs, storyboards and concept designs for Akira, and hopefully they’ll eventually see the light of day.
All things considered, the bike redesign — something that would be almost a given — doesn’t sound bad at all, especially with the idea of retaining the basic silhouette, but revealing other details when seeing it close. (Then again, it could also end up looking like some of the rickety comic to screen designs from, say, Judge Dredd.)
Weston also says that he believes that the casting rumors floating around(ranging from Zac Effron to Keanu Reeves etc) are "bollocks". I really hope that Warners get their heads out of their asses when it comes to this movie. I would not be against an Americanized version of
Akira IF the essence of the original story and characters were kept in tact. But everything we have heard so far suggests that a live action version would be
Akira in name only.
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About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.