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Forum - View topicNEWS: Book of Eli's Albert Hughes: Warner Wants PG-13 Akira
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Takeyo
 Posts: 736 |
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Hmm. Is Warner Bros. gun shy after Watchmen, or are the execs just hung up on the, "cartoons are for kids," fallacy?
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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It pretty much starts and stops with the fact that a PG-13 action movie has a higher potential gross than an R-rated one. |
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jmfsilenthill
 Posts: 1863 Location: Chinese cartoons are srs biz |
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Good news to see the project moving forward. It's kind of a bummer that they have to work within the confines of a PG-13 rating, as some parts of Akira are definitely R-rated material (spoiler[like when Tetsuo blows those dudes up after escaping from his room at the facility thingy]
 ).
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TokyoGetter
 Posts: 416 Location: CA. You can tell by the low moral standards. |
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For some reason, I was really holding out hope for this one... now I'm almost assured that it will blow.
I'd much rather they take the same money and pump out four of the anime a la Eva. And sweet buttery CRAP let's keep Morgan Freeman out of this. R Lee Ermy or somebody as "the general" is doable, but the penguin narrator guy can stay at home. But whadda I know? I called BS on that second Batman film for the same reasons. |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8503 Location: Penguinopolis |
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PG-13 is a very dangerous territory. It can mean more profits, but at the cost of the integrity of the film.
Well, it'll probably be garbage anyway, so they might as well try to make as much profit as they can on it. |
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RestLessone
 Posts: 1426 Location: New York |
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Well, I guess this will truly test his abilities to craft a good movie intended to be mature while in the confines of PG-13. When I think about it, several PG-13 movies are very mature, enough to mistake it for rated R. So it's not like it's an impossible feat. At least he seems to have concern for the movie, and apparently isn't taking the "Can't do R, huh? Okay! Time to do whatever and make money!" route.
And a higher gross won't be too bad. In fact, getting some teens hooked would be pretty nice. |
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writerpatrick
 Posts: 685 Location: Canada |
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There's many scenes of violence that could cause a problem, but my first thought was of spoiler[body parts in jars.] |
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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It's interesting that the writer brings up The Dark Knight, because yeah, the body count in that was huge, but it always left the violence implied. I suppose Akira could be done with discretionary shots. But boy howdy, you do not want to neuter Akira into a kids' film by eliminating the violence. It will not work, it's meant to have a horror element. It was not written for children, it should not be read or viewed by children. If it can be a "hard" PG-13, as in, don't let anyone under 13 see it but teenagers are okay, then it might work.
That's only in the film, and the writers have made it very clear they're going back to the manga for this. Of course, if that's the case, they'll have to deal with rampant drug use plus a brief orgy in the second act. Making this PG-13 will take work and creativity. One hopes the writers are up to the challenge. |
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stararnold
 Posts: 227 Location: LaSalle, Quebec, Canada |
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Well neither. After all, if the execs were still hung up on the "cartoons are for kids" sterotype currently, non of the Adult Swim cartoon shows (ex: "The Venture Bros.") would still be running today, especially when Warner Bros. still owns all the Adult Swim properties. |
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Oneeyedjacks
 Posts: 307 |
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Well this pretty much guarantees the movies going to be watered-down.
Of course what did we expect? |
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mglittlerobin
 Posts: 1071 |
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I'm sure they'll probably do a PG-13 version of it, and then they'll release and "Unrated" version for the die-hard fans of it.
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Reibooi
 Posts: 394 |
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I didn't ever expect the movie to be good at all in the first place. There is alot of crazy effect and imagery that quite frankly I don't think they would be able to pull off with the budget they will get for the movie.
This isn't helping either. While they say they are going to try to stay true to it and not completely ruin the movie I see it as nothing but talk. A PG-13 version of the movie will not work. It will have parts that need to be left out entirely that are needed to be there. Not that it matters they are probably going to butcher it regardless. |
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machetecat
 Posts: 396 |
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I've never actually seen Akira, but don't people die some rather gruesome death's in that? I believe I saw a clip once of spoiler[a girl getting crushed to death when this kid expanded into a large mass 'o flesh or something... blood was everywhere.]
I'm not a fan of gruesome gore, which is why I've avoided the movie, but I can't imagine how they could condense that to be PG-13. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15604 |
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That's news? Of course it was gonna be PG-13. Especially after Watchmen bombed. It'll suck for different reasons, though, which Hughes seems to acknowledge. But hey, as long as it's in 3-d, who cares, right?
Actually, Gary Oldman as the Colonel could work. But I think The Rock would be a better choice, if he can grow a good 'stache. Zac: Well, that, and if Akira costs a fortune, the studio wants to recoup its dough. I hear Jonah Hex gets away with a lot for a PG-13 flick, so we'll see how it goes with that. Tokyo: He's a colonel, not a general. penguin: The film already lost its integrity the minute the characters were no longer Asian. vash: Of course, the irony is that Princess Mononoke has the same amount of violence as Akira, but Disney was able to buy a PG-13, while Geneon had to settle for an R, even though Macek was able to get away with slapping a "13+" sticker on the tapes when he had the rights. But yeah, being able to the manga's even more nuts. Seriously, they might as well be adapting Domu instead-whether or not Del Toro is attached. Cheaper and they can get away with more. |
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Splitter
 Posts: 1276 Location: Knockin' on Heaven's Door |
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Watered-down adaptation HO!
Good god, is it now actually possible that it could be worse than the 1988 film? |
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