Live Action Anime seemed to be on the up and up in the
last couple of years, in particular Alita: Battle Angel. Director James Cameron had long been a fan of
this classic cyberpunk action epic and sought to bring it to the big screen for
years…then he got bogged down in Avatar and handed the reigns over to Robert
Rodriguez and history was made: A Live Action Anime that didn’t suck. Still, Cameron was talking about Alita in the
90s, it never arrived til 2019. Live
Action Anime are no stranger to “Development Hell”, the place where film and TV
Projects all go to sit and wait for someone to care about them enough to see
them through to completion. Some are
worth the wait, like Alita or the Rurouni Kenshin Movies…others make us
remember why Live Action Anime are best left alone (looking at you Cowboy
Bebop). Today on Top 5 Wendnesday, I’m
looking back at some of the titles I’ve either heard about long ago or that I
know are still very much in this very special circle of Hell. These are the Top 5 Live Action Anime in
Development Hell. I should note, I’m
picking titles that are currently stalled or that we haven’t heard news about
in years. So the Mobile Suit Gundam
movie in the works by Legendary Pictures isn’t going to be on this list cause I
know it’s gonna happen…eventually…there’s other Anime that better fit trust me.
OK this…I’ll just say it, this one is a bad idea.
Your Name was a runaway success back in 2016
and its box office domination of the world outside of Japan increased when it arrived
stateside in 2017.
On top of that, Your
Name is a damn good movie.
Nevermind
that second bit though cause Hollywood saw those Dollar Signs and wanted to cap
on that success ASAP.
From the get go in
2017, a live action Your Name has been in development under JJ Abrams’ Bad
Robot Productions and while a script is still being worked to this day.
Marc Webb, director of the two Amazing Spider
Man Movies, was attached to direct at first but he’s only been the first of
many to leave the project for creative or scheduling issues.
And again, maybe it’s a sign.
Your Name has a premise that fits and works
with Anime and Anime alone.
That could
just be me being defensive of a movie I love quite a bit and I haven’t
forgotten that I was wrong about Alita: Battle Angel (we all were tbh).
Who knows if this will still make it to
completion, we’ll just have to wait and see.
#4-Robotech
A staple of Anime in the 80s in the US, Robotech has long
been lobbied as a choice for a live action franchise.
We live in even more of a Giant Robot heyday
thanks to the success (for worse more than better) of the Transformers
movies.
So why hasn’t Robotech followed
suit with Transformers and GI Joe as an 80s action classic to get the live
action treatment?
Harmony Gold, the US
company that’s long held the Robotech rights with an iron fist, seemed keen on
getting something going back in 2008 with Spider Man’s Tobey Maguire attached
to Produce (and Star I think too).
But
the script kept jumping from writer to writer, even to Lawrence Kasdan, who
wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Empire Strikes Back.
And there was the seemingly eternal war
between Harmony Gold and Big West over the US rights to the Macross franchise,
aka the one part of Robotech everyone wants to adapt.
Personally, it’s strange to say but
Independence Day: Resurgence had all the setups of a Robotech movie (Alien
technology salvaged from an attack several years prior to make new and improved
weapons is used to repel another Alien invasion).
And if Resurgence did turn out to be a secret
Robotech movie instead of a simple too little, too late sequel…it might’ve done
better.
#3-Voltron
This isn’t the last entry we’ll
be seeing on this list featuring Giant Robots cause…well lets face it, until
Isekai reigned supreme, Anime was all about Giant Robots.
Voltron was always one of the leading forces
in the subgenre and the popularity of Power Rangers showed there was an
audience for kids wanting to see these mammoth fighting machines in action in
real life.
I remember the idea of a
Voltron movie gaining traction back in 2007, again after the success of the
first Transformers movie…and for some reason Pharrell was doing the music…ok
that sounded cool.
There was even
mistaken hype after a line in the teaser for 2008’s Cloverfield, “It’s alive
and it’s huge”, was misheard as “It’s a Lion and it’s huge.”
This got debunked quickly but I remember
imagining that famous shot of the Statue of Liberty’s head crashing into the
street being replaced with the Red Lion crashing, standing up, shaking off some
dust and then charging into battle (Cloverfeild is ok but that would’ve made it
cooler).
Sadly even with the relative
success of Voltron: Legendary Defender on Netflix, the Voltron Lions are still
snoozing as they wait for their Live Action call to form the big guy once
again.
#2-Neon Genesis Evangelion
This was always a big title that got tossed around in
circles for Live Action Anime consideration.
In 2003, fans got hyped when ADV Films (the company that produced Eva’s best
dub of the TV Series) announced a Live Action project was indeed in the
works.
And they even had a slew of
concept art to share that looked very promising.
Not long after this, however, ADV shut down
and the rights to Neon Genesis Evangelion and it’s two movies (Death and
Rebirth and The End of Evangelion) became lost in the ether waiting for a
company to eventually pick them up.
In
the eyes of many, the closest we have ever gotten to a live action Eva movie is
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim, which itself has a bunch of Eva references
contrary to the Director’s insistence otherwise.
And Pacific Rim is a great movie, probably
the best Giant Robot flick we’ve ever gotten.
So…at least we have that.
Neon
Genesis Evangelion is still the most marketed and profitable Anime in
Japan.
With the Rebuild Series finally
done, I think the franchise is going into “standby mode” for a while…so Live
Action news isn’t coming any time soon.
#1-Akira
Considered for a long time to be the most popular and
quintessential Anime ever made, Akira was ripe for Film Studios to snatch it up
and bring it to life.
But like every
other title we’ve talked about today, that seems to be next to impossible.
From producers like Leonadro DiCaprio to
stars like Kristen Stewart and Joseph Gordon Levitt being attached to star, the
Akira Film Project rumors have varied over the years and none made it even
close to a filming stage.
There was one
near close success in 2019 when Warner Bros were in talks with Director Taika
Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) to step into the Director’s Chair.
But the success of Ragnarok prompted Marvel
Studios to lock Waititi in quick for the fourth coming Thor film, Love and
Thunder, and that shut down any attempts to move forward.
Even Jordan Peele, who has been in high
demand thanks to Get Out and Us, has been a long time name in the running and
even he thinks its not a good idea right now.
Guess we wont be seeing a Live Action mutated Testuo blob any time soon.
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