And So It Begins

With Akira on Hold, Warner Bros. Turns Its Baleful Eye to Bleach

by Susana Polo | 4:13 pm, February 23rd, 2012

Picture unrelated.

Despite intense backlash whenever it seemed to be toying with the idea of adapting Akira, Warner Bros. is reportedly still set on pushing somebody‘s anime series to the big, broad, American silver screen, and Tite Kubo‘s Bleach is the next project they’ve reportedly focused on.

Oddly enough, though one of the producers on board is Masi Oka (Heroes), who brought the series to the attention of producer (and prospective director) Peter Segal, and the English language publisher of Bleach is also involved in the production. A production that as of right now simply includes the writing of a script, by Dan Mazeau. On the other hand, Mazeau’s only industry credit at the moment is Wrath of the Titans, and Segal is better known for stuff like Get Smart, Anger Management, and 50 First Dates than anything resembling a supernatural action teen drama that is Bleach.

On the other, other hand, Warner Bros.’ attitude towards fixing Akira‘s problems was to repeatedly call for script rewrites and axe the budget some more, until the production was halted entirely, so there’s no way of knowing whether the project will actually become something more than a few posts on some Entertainment blogs, or just languish in pre-production hell, scaring the crap out of fans whenever it’s brought up.

(Variety via Comics Alliance.)

TAGS: anime | Masi Oka | Warner Bros.

Anonymous

I don’t get Warner Bros. If Akira didn’t work out, why would Bleach?
http://catystorm.livejournal.com/ Catie

I bet they’re thinking Bleach can be Westernized easier. Which I could see. I wouldn’t be *happy* about it, but I could see it.
http://www.facebook.com/1shewolf JoAnna Luffman

Maybe having someone like Masi Oka involved will help, but I’m afraid of what they’ll do to Bleach. I only recently found it, and don’t want them ruining it.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_R7GVNIKWG3S2UTHEQOMSZXT4M4 Anna B

::HUGE ASS GROAN::
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_R7GVNIKWG3S2UTHEQOMSZXT4M4 Anna B

How can it be Westernized easier? Almost all of the characters are fashioned after Samurai or some other kind of Japanese Warrior?
http://twitter.com/crlanei C. R. Lanei

Bleach isn’t as difficult to translate to a Western audience. There are cultural aspects that would certainly be white washed but it is more accessible versus Akira. Bleach in general is a pretty easy watch story wise and it won’t be as challenging to get a script that folks would be sort of okay with.

Akira is just very tied to Japanese history and psychology. To take it out of context turns it into something very different.

That said–I’m not crazy about anime turned live action in general.
Anonymous

No…. No. No! NOOOOOO!
Frodo Baggins

Guhhhh, flashbacks! *twitch*
Amber Barnes

Problem is? The fandom universally loathes Viz’s translations of the manga. Its so painfully inaccurate in some places (and dont get started on the Angloization on some of the terminology), and considering that its a supernatural genre centered around beings called “death gods” and the afterlife, can’t you just see the wailing and gnashing of teeth over it?

They can make it more accessible, but only after erasing most of the universe and lore thats intrinsic to the story.
http://www.facebook.com/Gorillazfan Emily Hill

having some people who know the story still won’t help it will be DB Evolution all over again and we the fans when we get home will go into a dark corner and weep about how Warner Bros hates us because they gutted out everything we loved about bleach
http://twitter.com/FrankenFran Franken Fran

Another problem is that in order to even fit an entire Bleach story into one movie (whether it’s some original, non-canon story like the animated Bleach movies or a condensed version of one of the series’ story arcs), they would have to cut out so much detail* that it wouldn’t even be a shadow of its former self, it’d just be a generic thing about some guy with a sword.

*character-related detail, I mean– we all know Kubo started sacrificing plot after the Soul Society arc for long fight sequences (as well as detailed scenery)
http://acksed.myopenid.com/ Colin

The first arc might work as a film, but so much would be cut for time or content.
Ichigo got his powers by stabbing himself with a sword? That’s out.
The part about his mother and the Hollow? Tl;dr.
Ichigo’s friends getting powers? Gets in the way of the action.
Captain Freakshow would definitely be cut.
Kon? …well, I guess we could cut Kon.