Sam Riami's Noir, Part III

STARZ Massacring Noir OR

Jumping to Conclusions?

Perhaps it's not a good idea to jump to conclusions. I know that in the world of film and television things do change rapidly. How rapidly depends on the production really. Now with Sam Raimi's Noir getting the greenlight from Starz, the pre-production phase has begun and already things are looking grim for the anime's transition to the live action screen.

Previous posts and message board comments from around the internet and this blog have mentioned I was cautiously optimistic for a live action Noir. Even with the hyperrealism of the show, it still was just crazy enough to work in a Bourne Identity sort of way, maybe. Unlike shows like Dragonball and Speed Racer, Noir has a fairly serious plot line. Also unlike the others Noir is also very Eurocentric. So really gotta be pretty hard to fuck this one up? Well they did. At least based on these casting sheets released by the Actor Resource Showfax. Sheets like these are used by casting directors based on the writer and development notes as to who to look for when to cast. Let me sum it up for you.

Short Description –
[MIREILLE DUBOIS] 26/28, blonde, beautiful, sexy, graceful and stylish, "Bardot meets Deneuve." Mireille is an artist plugged into a sexy Paris avant garde. She is also one of the top assassins in Europe - cold, efficient and deadly - working under the codename 'Noir'. Mireille is a survivor of the War in the East, a woman who experienced horrors and traumas that forged her into 'Noir'. She embraces life and lives it to the full, but always on her own terms. Deep down Mireille is all about control - of her environment, people and herself. She can make you feel like the only person in a crowded room, and then, when you are, kill you without compunction.

Short Description –
[KIRIKA] 18-20, Japanese, stunning, chilling, balletic and agile. Kirika is a human guided missile. Programmed from infancy in the ways of The Soldats, an ancient society of assassins. Kirika follows her orders without question and would happily die to achieve her mission. Knows nothing of the outside world, and relies on her trainer Lance for guidance. After a fight with Mireille, Kirika develops amnesia and cannot remember her Soldat past. Suddenly she's an 18 yr old girl with 1960s Paris at her feet, and Kirika is going to experience it all, with only Mireille as her guide.

Already you can tell a lot has been changed and if you ask me not for the better. Now you probably guess I'm already a Noir fan. But I'm not as engrossed in it as probably some of my others. But I give my gripes of so much change for what seems to be the sake of change. The plot being set in the 1960s, personally don't like it. It wasn't a period piece to begin with, why make it one? But not the worst thing you can do. The introduction of CIA Agents a whole pointless KGB sub-plot? Male love interests for Mireille and Kirika because they're so clearly afraid of subtle girl x girl thematic elements? Why Starz? Why does this have to become Generic American Crime Show #20184?

There is so much more and others have their vocal opinions on it as well. I can bitch all I want and yeah probably won't change anything but never stopped other internet critics before right?

http://www.shoujoai.com/forum/topic_show.pl?tid=45736

http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/61926060.html#comments

Sam Riami's Noir?

Sam Raimi's Noir?

Sam Raimi of Spider-Man and The Evil Dead fame and Rob Tapert (Xena: Warrior Princess, Legend of the Seeker) have been announced as being attached the live action adaptation of the anime cult classic Noir the 2001 action series that practically defined "Girls-With-Guns." I guess it is no surprise a series like Noir would get considered for a live action TV Series and really this could work....COULD WORK.

I need not mention over the last few years we've been treated to some real turkey live-action adaptations of anime. From The Wachowskis Speed Racer to the unmentionable Dragonball Evolution, not to mention the ever dreaded Americanized remake of Akira. So here we stand in the face of another live action adaptation, however this one can work.

I won't lie, I'm skeptical about this and with little details on what the series is gonna be like it's no wonder. Questions race through my mind and every other Noir fan out there, will this be anything like the series? Will it be Americanized (as opposed the European setting, even you can't mess that up unless you really try) and will Yuki Kajiura's music be featured in the series? Can Starz! Network make a good work of art and not sour the remaining anime community from live action treatments of shows? Possibly. At present we only have more questions than answers. There's a few things I'd like to see my self in a Live-Action Noir TV Series. I'm not going to focus too much on the plot setting as things like that will be fleshed changed meddled around with for its new format anyway.

• French/European Setting
• A Japanese or otherwise Asian girl playing Kirika (Whether she's English, French, America, all Japanese Chinese whatever)
• License Kajiura's music or otherwise rearrange/cover them.
• Keep the girl on girl love themes? I will say tread lightly on this. There is such a thing as too much and too much pandering to the base can hurt the quality rather than help it. In other words don't turn it into an episode of MANswers.
  

That's really about all I can think of. I want to see this project do well. Noir is a show I particularly enjoy and something like this could actually go well.