Toby Kebbell Talks “Akira” Remake | News | Dark Horizons

One thing actor Sam Worthington is famously refreshing for in junket interviews is his candidness. That quality seems to have been passed on to his “Wrath of the Titans” co-star Toby Kebbell who spoke quite honestly about the on again/off again live-action “Akira” remake at Warners which he was linked to late last year.

At the time Kebbell was in the running to play Tetsuo alongside Garrett Hedlund as Kaneda, rumors that Kebbell has now confirmed were true in an interview with IFC.

“Yes, that was genuine… They were like, ‘This is going to be a big franchise!. So I said, ‘Then in that case, understand that I’ve read the comics, and I’ve read the comics that got turned into the annuals, and then the annuals that got turned into the one-off anime. So if you really want to do it, then why don’t you look at the six comics and just put two into each film?’”

He continues, “That way my character, Tetsuo, is not the lead. He’s not the second lead, and he’s not the third or the fourth lead, because there are eight major characters there. You’ve got great young actors, and you could get them in there. That’s the way to do it if you want to do sequels. They were like, ‘Welllll…’. So I told them, ‘Then this is a remake [of the animated movie], and I don’t want to do a live-action remake of the cartoon, because [the cartoon] is perfect and you’re not going to do it dark enough — so therefore, I don’t want to do it.”

Part of his hesitancy seems to be the changes that were in store – “I was desperate to play Tetsuo, but Tetsuo in the comic and annual form… The other thing they wanted to do was make [Tetsuo and Kaneda] brothers. I was like, ‘The point is that Tetsuo can’t comprehend how someone who isn’t his brother could love him so much — and that’s where his wrath and his rage come from. Do you not see that? Why have you made them brothers? What the fuck are you doing?’”

He caps it off saying “I was desperate to do it, but I just hoped they were going to take the six annuals and adapt them. Having said that, they’ll probably read this and go, ‘We’re never working with him again.’ But I wish they would. Sometimes it’s a shame that money rules, because there are great stories to be told out there.”

via Toby Kebbell Talks “Akira” Remake | News | Dark Horizons.