It’s been pretty hard to escape the marketing push for this week’s forthcoming live-action Speed Racer film. With the Wachowski Bros. directing this technicolor fever dream, who knows if it’ll actually be any good, but it will do one rather significant thing: usher in the forthcoming wave of live-action anime adaptations, of which there are apparently several planned including Akira and Ghost in the Shell.

Hearing of these adaptations isn’t anything new. Heck, Akira (mentioned on the site recently) has been in development hell for years now but seemed to have completely flatlined once Stephen Norrington (who had signed on to direct) decided to drop out of Hollywood entirely. Normally I’d scoff at the idea of Hollywood trying to adapt these incredibly complex works (to say nothing of the inevitable Americanization of them), but when people like Steven Spielberg and Leonardo DiCaprio get on board, well, that at least sparks a healthy amount of curiosity. Toss in the fact that Spielberg wants to do Ghost in the Shell in 3-D and you can consider my attention grabbed, sir.

Live-Action Akira (via Variety)

Speilberg Tackles GitS In 3-D (via Variety)

By Stewart Smith