@animequeen34:

Hope you know the U.S. isn't the only country to make movies and T.V. series based on stories originating from outiside of its domestic area. Japan, for example, has a history of making films and T.V. series based on what's not Japanese originated (examples of Non-Japanese fiction adapted for Japanese film/T.V. include Heidi, Girl of the Alps, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Sherlock Holmes, The Powerpuff Girls, Starship Troopers, Witchblade, and even Romeo and Juliet, ) but you don't hear people complaining about it despite story changes. If people are going to complain about American versions of anime/manga titles getting made, I think it's only fair that they do the same about Japan creating its takes on books/comic books, movies, T.V. series, and video games that are not of Japanese origin, otherwise that is setting up for double standard, which is so not cool at all.

Sometimes, it seems that some anime fans spend so much time complaning about America adapting anime/manga for American T.V./film that they lose sight that not all anime or manga are based on non-Japanese originated content.

Totally agree with Stararnold here. It's not that Hollywood has run out of ideas. But in this economy, even Hollywood's suffering and it's cheaper and safe for them to put money in remakes and not take risks on new writers/ideas. Plus, a lot of the stuff they remake has "Storyboards" already in place, especially comics. The remake of Akira might be bad, but it might get enough hype people will hear about the original and may be more interested in seeing it (of course, Akira maaaaaaaaay not be the best example to get people into the fandom).

Also, Kristen Stewart is appearing in Snow White and the Huntsman next spring. We'll see how she does in that. While I personally believe she only has one facial expression, having never sat through a twilight movie, I can't really judge her acting as of right now.

@TimeChaser:

Except that Hollywood ran out of ideas months or years ago, the biz would cease to exist by then and no movies would be around this month or beyond. Plus, I don't think we can blame anyone for being afraid to take financial risks of any kind, including what could put a studio out of business forever. Fear of risk is a natural thing.

As for "Akira", lets not forget that it's about the adventure and action, not the setting or what it means to belong to a particluar background. Doing a U.S. "Akira" is sort of like working on the Americanized "Star Blazers" English dub of the 1970s classic "Space Battleship Yamato", which Americanized its narrative details while still managing to keep intact its premise and Sci-Fi appeal. No offense, but I'm just trying to bring up a perspective on the subject of westernizing Japanese-originated stories. Heck, if Japan can get away with creating a Japanized version of the U.S. comic book series "Witchblade" with Japanese audiences enjoying it, why can't Warner Bros. create a U.S. "Akira" that U.S. people can enjoy?

Hollywood has no idea what they're doing. If they genuinely cared about casting, this could be as good as Blade Runner. But even considering Kristen Stewart... I'm inclined to agree with other people saying this is just a move to try and secure profits from a certain section of the movie-going public.

They should keep the original setting, and cast appropriate actors for the roles. But no, they have no confidence in this as a film, so they hedge their bets by attaching big names to it. Because lets be honest, that's how Hollywood operates. That's why they're spending so much time doing remakes. They've run out of good ideas, and they figure a movie will sell better with a big name cast, rather than try to cast people who would actually do justice to the characters.

it's a shame that she's a terrible actor. if only she'd read all of the hate, maybe she could improve herself...

*runs for the hills screaming "The End is NIGH*

This proves without any shred of doubt that Warner Bros. is planning a massive crap-fest.

If they intended to make a decent movie, they could assume their investment was secure, just based on fans of Akira and of action/sci fi movies.

The only excuse for bringing in the Twilight twit is because they are already panicking about losing money. They are banking - literally - on the success of the Twit franchise and the ease by which the average teenager is parted from their expendable income in order to post decent profits.

I haven't seen much of the "Twilight" actress herself, and although I never read the "Akira" manga, I'll save the judgement on the gal's performance until I get the chance watch the movie.

I think we have another DBZ here, guys . u .
The woman obviously can't act :| I don't even know how she managed to get the role of Bella, to be honest.

dang it wht r they thinking bout doing kristen like tht

I like this headline.

Kei has a pretty big role in the manga (a lot bigger than even in the movie, actually), so that might be kind of-- hahahahaha what am I saying.

I kinda liked Kristen Stewart in The Runaways. I don't care about the Twilight series at all, but that didn't affect how I viewed her acting in the former film. Give someone a decent role to play, and who knows, she might actually be kinda good.

I thought there was a open casting call for Kei/Kay after she was offered the role?

@:

*Passes popcorn*

Oh look, it's Hollywood not giving a single damn.

Nothing to see here, move along.

Well, it not like I expected anything amazing to come out of any movie with the label 'live action' trailing behind it.