Giant Freakin Robot

It’s not that we’re necessarily opposed to a live-action adaptation of Akira—don’t get us wrong, such an endeavor is totally unnecessary, but when has that ever stopped a movie from being made?—it’s just that every single time anyone talks about the project it sounds terrible. At various points over the years, actors like James Franco and Leonardo DiCaprio, among many others, have been attached, and everyday we thank a god we don’t particularly believe in that this hasn’t happened yet. That said, this concept art from one potential incarnation looks incredible. If anyone can actually make a version of Akira that looks like this, we’d climb right on board.

These pieces come from art director Ruairi Robinson and were part of Warner Bros.’ 2009 attempt to bring the classic anime to life. Robinson later went on to make his directorial debut with the sci-fi thriller Last Days on Mars. These images come directly from his personal website, which is overflowing with fantastic pieces from his various projects. Again, if there is any way that you could guarantee us that a live-action Akira would look this good, we would have no hesitation supporting this venture.

Most of us think the idea of a live-action remake of Akira is a terrible idea, especially starring a bunch of American actors. For more than a decade, Hollywood has been talking about this, with everyone from Leonardo DiCaprio to Zac Efron linked to the project at some point, and in no way has the news ever sounded anything but horrendous. The latest round of chatter appears to have died down, which is good, and as much as the idea still totally sucks, you really need to watch this fan-made trailer for a live-action Akira.

This impressive film from the Akira Project has been making the rounds on the Internet and we wanted to share it with you if you haven’t already checked it out. If you’re a fan, this is definitely worth the five minutes of your life it will take to watch. Though it is framed as a trailer, this plays more like a condensed version of the action than a preview. You get all of the important scenes and moments, and though the acting may be less than stellar—we are talking about a fan film here—everything else is damn near perfect.

While I wasn’t interested in it for most of its run, I’ve become a late-to-the-game fan of Star Wars: The Clone Wars thanks to the fact that my kids love it. It’s part of my long game to get them hooked on Star Wars so I can show them the original trilogy right before the new one begins in 2015. But I’m willing to bet there are plenty of grown-up Clone Wars fans who want more than just the episodes. If you’ve got a craving to dive into the world and making of The Clone Wars, you’ll want to set course for the WBShop, where you can currently grab the Blu-ray collector’s set of seasons 1 – 5 for less than $90. That’s $20 below the initial 27% markdown WBShop already had on the set.

With the box office success of the new Star Trek, X-Men, and Planet of the Apes reboot film series, it seems that more and more movie studios are hopping on the bandwagon, relaunching old film franchises in hopes of finding new audiences. Properties like Terminator and Escape From New York are getting the reboot treatment, and now it seems that the long-in-development live-action Akira movie is getting in on the trend as well.

In an interview with ComingSoon.net, director Jaume Collet-Serra opens up about his vision for the Akira live-action remake. Collet-Serra has had a rough time trying to get an American version of the popular Japanese animated film off the ground. The Spanish director talks about how his version of Akira will be different, while at the same time fitting in with the manga and anime that came before it. Collet-Serra says:

[Katsuhiro] Otomo adapted his own work from a manga into an anime and both things are completely different and genius. The only way to do a live version of Akira is to take the spirit and adapt it. It will be as different as the anime was from the manga.

A very wise man who happened to be dressed like a bat once posited that “It’s the car, right? Chicks love the car.” Indeed, saving the world wouldn’t be nearly as much fun if you didn’t get to do it while tooling around town in your very own unique set of wheels. You know it. I know it. Even Batman knows it, and he was being played by Val Kilmer at the time. And while Batman’s assorted -mobiles have gone through countless variations on a theme, he hasn’t got the market cornered on awesome vehicles. In fact, if you offered me a choice between my very own Batmobile or a fully tricked-out replica of the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters…I think we both know who I’m gonna call…

It seems like every six months or so we here another round of news about the long-gestating, live-action adaptation of Akira. Of course, many die-hard Akira fans think a live-action version is a terrible idea, especially coming out of the Hollywood system, which tends to play fast and loose with fidelity to the original source material (Hi there, white Kaneda!). At this point, it’s anybody’s guess whether the Akira movie will ever actually make its way to the screen, or if it’ll just continue popping its head up every once in a while, like a considerably less cute Punxsutawney Phil. In the meantime, how about we focus on a much more awesome related project: an Akira/Simpsons mashup project, courtesy of nearly 800 different artists.

The project didn’t start out this huge, obviously. Artist Ryan Humphrey drew some Simpsons/Akira mashup art…