Movies

Keanu Passes On ‘Akira’, Pre-Viz Halted

Published

13 years ago

May 18, 2011

Even though he has a strong relationship with Warner Bros. by way of the The Matrix franchise, Keanu Reeves has officially passed on the role of Kaneda in the live-action Akira film, based on the 1988 landmark anime and six-volume manga, reports JoBlo.

The project has been in development hell for years and has had numerous big names circling it – James Franco, Brad Pitt, Joseph Gordon-Levitt to name a few – but none have ultimately signed on to the Albert Hughes helmed sci-fi flick, whose budget has swelled to an estimated $140 million. WB must’ve really been saddened by Keanu passing on the role, because they shut down the pre-viz department and let go most of the staff working on the film afterwards.

They still claim to be in the adaptation business, saying “Production on `Akira’ has not halted or been shut down, as the film has not yet been greenlit and is still very much in the development stage. The exploratory process is crucial to a project of this magnitude, and we will continue to sculpt our approach to making the best possible film.”

Regardless of the spin the studio will try to put on this, the facts are these: With word of even more possible rewrites to lower the budget (which soared much higher than WB expected), Akira is going to limp to its death unless an outside studio steps in to co-produce or an A-list actor jumps on board – and fast. They can tinker all they want, but Akira is huge in scope. Unless WB decides to visually represent the physical manifestation of Akira as a storm cloud (I’m looking at you, Rise Of The Silver Surfer) and film it in suburbia, I can’t imagine the film costing less than $100 million.

Woah, in the future I have a career!

David Harley

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Movies

Melissa Barrera and Bailee Madison Want Roles in the ‘Scary Movie’ Reboot

Published

30 mins ago

April 24, 2024

John Squires

Abigail Overlook Film Festival 2024 - gory horror Abigail set visit

Pictured: Melissa Barrera in 'Abigail'

It was announced two weeks ago that Paramount is resurrecting the Scary Movie spoof franchise with a brand new reboot movie, which will likely arrive in theaters next year.

The new movie, a joint venture between Paramount and Miramax that will technically be the sixth installment in the franchise, is expected to go into production this coming Fall.

We don’t yet know who will be writing, directing or starring in the Scary Movie reboot, but two actors in particular have already expressed an interest in joining the franchise.

The first is Melissa Barrera, who can currently be seen in theaters in Radio Silence’s bloody horror movie Abigail. Barrera is of course also the star of Scream and Scream VI, which kind of makes her a perfect candidate to lampoon herself in a Scary Movie reboot.

“I always loved those movies,” Melissa Barrera tells the website Inverse. “When I saw it announced, I was like, ‘Oh, that would be fun.’ That would be so fun to do.”

The actress adds, “They have the iconic cast that did it, so we’ll see what goes on with that. I’m just excited to see a new one.”

In a tweet posted last night, Bailee Madison (The Strangers: Prey at Night, the upcoming “Pretty Little Liars: Summer School”) also threw her hat in the running.

Madison tweets, “Random but scary movie 6 hit me up cause I just feel like we’d have fun okay bye.” Your move, Paramount. And make sure you call Anna Faris and Regina Hall too.

Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans, the first Scary Movie was released in 2000, just four years after Wes Craven reinvigorated the horror genre with his meta slasher masterpiece, Scream.

The film parodied horror movies of the time including Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and The Blair Witch Project, and the horror-comedy spoof scared up $278 million at the worldwide box office. The success of that first Scary Movie paved the way for an entire franchise of horror spoofs, five of them in total released between 2000 and 2013.