Leonardo DiCaprio talks "Ninja Scroll" and "Akira" remakes

by Chris MaGee

I was right. About a month ago I said that Leonardo DiCaprio must be some kind of crazy anime fan after his production company, Appian Way, bought up the rights for Yoshiaki Kawajiri's "Ninja Scroll" with plans to turn it into a live action feature. We all know that the "Titanic" and "The Aviator" star had already bought the remake rights for Katsuhiro Otomo's "Akira" way back when, so it would be safe to assume that he was a real anime otaku, and it turns out I was right.

In an interview with MTV DiCaprio admitted, "I'm a big fan of Japanese anime." See! The star also tried to assuage the doubts of fans of "Ninja Scroll" by explaining, "...we're trying to get [Ninja Scroll] developed and made into a movie, and I know there a lot of loyal fans out there of the project and die-hard fans, so we're going to try to do the best job we possibly can and we're not going to make the movie until the script is in the right shape." Well, at least we know he's not in a rush and wants to do right by the fans.

He also put to rest any speculation that he would be starring "Akira" by simply stating that he was "not really" interested in appearing in the planned live-action remake. This is probably a good thing. DiCaprio is getting a bit old to play either Tetsuo or Kaneda at this point. One of those creepy prematurely aged psychic kids, maybe. Tetsuo or Kaneda, no.

Thanks to Anime News Network for the story.