Live-Action Akira: Could it work?

After watching this legenary film over the Christmas holidays i began to ponder the plausability of this film getting a Live-Acton remake, the idea seems to be a fairly sound one but naturally their are some gripes that need to be addressed in order to make my point.

First and foremost is the simple fact that Akira is pure visual eye-candy, considering the film is rapidly approaching 30 years old it is incredable to see how well t stacks up to more modern anime material. Not to mention its impressive world building using simple visual exposition, their are a few scenes in that film that are highly memorable for me in particular. (im not going to say however to avoid spoiling it for people who have yet too watch it) If we ctually go back to the time of Akira's release we can begin to understand the complications of making it Live-Action from a technical perspective, but VFX (visual effects) Technology has progressed so far that 30 years later the prospect of a Live-Action Akira film is very Plausable.

My second point is that on a few occasions the transition from Anime to Live-Action has been incredably jarring. For instance the ill-fated Dragon Ball film (Dragonball Evolution) went to prove that things like Dragon Ball dont translate very well at all from the origional, some things are animated for a good reason. But with Akira their is nothing inherantly outlandish or outside the box with the story, it is just a well executed tail of a post apocalyptic Tokyo that is shown in a very believable manor. its story is strong, which to me says that it is a story that can be compelling for everyone regardless of whatever format it is presented in. be it Anime or Live Action.

Finally my third point comes down too potential white-washing of characters, this has become a particularly bad habbit of Hollywood in recent years when it comes to creating other films from around the world. Given that akira establishes from the very beggining that it is set in Tokyo, so their is no need or excuse not to use an asian cast or even actors with asain routes to give it that authenticity. Directors like Guillermo Del Toro understand these points very well, and i only need to watch Pacific Rim again to realise that he is the ideal man to bring Akira to life in live Action form as he understands the kind of visual narrative that Akira thrives on.

This is something that i feel opens a fascinating disscussion on this topic and can go on to include more points, be sure to let me know your thoughts on Facebook and Twitter.

:)