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Marina Antunes [Celluloid 03.25.10] news fantasy

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I stumbled onto Satoshi Kon when, a few years ago, I did a mini marathon of Anime. I knew very little about the art and after a little searching, I made my way to Perfect Blue, followed closely by Millenium Actress. This wasn’t Disney and I loved every part of it coming to appreciate a medium I knew nothing about (and am still largely unfamiliar with) but when, in 2006, Kon presented his newest work, I knew I had to see it, ASAP.

Paprika was astonishing. Bright, colourful, imaginative and pulling at more stories and ideas than I was prepared for, it swept me into an overload coma; the kind I hadn’t experienced since first glimpsing the Wachowski’s The Matrix. In and of itself, that makes this next bit of news beyond strange and into serious WTF territory.


When news broke last year that Wolfgang Petersen would direct a live action adaptation of Kon’s film, I thought it was highly unlikely that the project would ever really move ahead. Turns out I was wrong – way wrong. In a recent interview, Peterson confirmed that though there isn’t a script yet, they’ve got a "young writer" (whatever that means) on it who has provided a "detailed treatment". That’s all fine and dandy but its this bit of news that has me shaking my head:

"We open it up a little bit more so it’s more accessible for a wide audience, but it comes a little bit sort of "Matrix" feel," he said. "Not like Matrix but sort of the size of it all, the scope of it all. So that it becomes more of a film for a mainstream audience."

Let’s be clear, it’s not that I dislike Petersen but his films…let’s just say they’re not exactly bursting at the seams with ideas and freshness. I can appreciate that they’re looking to make this more accessible by expanding the scope (not that the original requires any more widening – it’s already playing with some hefty moral and psychological questions) but I’m thinking that in the process, they’re going to end up with an ugly, over reaching beast and another strike in the long list of Hollywood remakes that suck.

That all said, I’m still going to keep my eye on this. You never know, I may be forced to eat my words. I hope that’s the case but I'm not holding my breath.

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brett (2 years ago) Reply

Yeah, whenever they say we're going to make it more mainstream it translates too we are going to water this down so much any fans of the original will be deeply insulted and as a result this film will reach no audience at all.

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qe suck (2 years ago) Reply

Is this a remake or another adaptation of the source novel? Kon took some big liberties with the story so... might be worthwhile waiting to see what actually happens here.

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Marina (2 years ago) Reply

Not sure on that. I'm assuming that Petersen is going with another adaptation of the source material. At least I hope that's the case.


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