When I first saw AKIRA I was unaffected in my younger days at the sight of The Espers. It’s not enough that they are aged significantly, they also have these very sweet and eerie voices. I felt, and still feel nothing but compassion for them. Their faces torn in horror and sadness. It’s hard to shake that image out of your head.
While I never thought it was impossible to adapt AKIRA for the big screen I did think that after the Hollywood polish it still wouldn’t measure up. This movie has elements that are perfectly captured with the animation and hard to imagine seeing beyond that. As of now the fate of the film is in limbo even though there are reports that it will begin production with director Jaume Collet-Serra in 2014. I’m at the point that I’ll believe it when there’s actual movement on it.
Until then, we have these pieces of concept art from Howard Lau (I, ROBOT) via Film Sketchr. Here you will see some tests on the face for Masaru who is sort of the ringleader so to speak out of the three.
Here’s a little background on The Espers:
AKIRA was set to star Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Ken Watanabe, Helena Bonham Carter, and either Michael Pitt or Dane DeHaan as Tetsuo.
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