Gary Oldman is one of the more versatile actors working today, so it makes sense that heâs a pretty in demand guy. One of the roles heâs currently being courted for is Jaume Collet-Seraâs adaptation of the manga/anime Akira. The Warner Bros. production is a top priority, and they recently found their male and female leads in Garrett Hedlund (Tron: Legacy) and Kristen Stewart. Word was that the studio wants Oldman for the Colonel role.
Steve recently got the chance to sit down with Oldman for the spy thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and the actor addressed the Akira rumors by confirming that heâs been approached, but he says no decisions have been made. Additionally, Oldman talked about working with the IMAX cameras on The Dark Knight Rises, which he says will be âpretty epicâ. He revealed that because the cameras are so loud, they have to dub all the dialogue after the fact. Hit the jump for the full interview.
When asked if the rumors that Oldman is involved with the Akira adaptation, he responded simply:
âRumor. Theyâve approached me, weâve talked about it, nothing has been confirmed.â
While he doesnât exactly sound optimistic about the project, he hasnât officially turned the role down just yet. Regarding The Dark Knight Rises, he talked about the peculiarity of shooting with the monstrous IMAX cameras:
âThe IMAX camera, itâs a strange thing. Thereâs only so much film that you can put through the gate, you get two takes from a roll I guess. The thing is, itâs very loud. Itâs a very noisy piece of equipment and itâs quite cumbersome, itâs quite a largeâyou donât hold an IMAX camera, I mean you can steadicam it.â
He revealed that any dialogue from a scene filmed with the IMAX camera has to be dubbed in post-production because the cameras are simply too loud. Oldman also said that quite a bit of the film was shot with the IMAX, unlike The Dark Knight where only a few scenes were filmed using the high-resolution cameras.
Hereâs the portion of the interview where Oldman talks about Akira and The Dark Knight Rises. Weâll have Steveâs full interview with the actor up soon. Finally, if you missed the new Dark Knight Rises images and Nolan revealing a lot of new details, click here.
Collider: Thereâs a lot of rumors that you might be doing Akira, and I wanted to know if that might be true.
Gary Oldman:Â Rumor. Theyâve approached me, weâve talked about it, nothing has been confirmed.
Could you talk about working with the IMAX format on The Dark Knight Rises?
Oldman: Well we shot, obviously Wally Pfister [the director of photography] and Chris [Nolan] shoot film. The IMAX camera, itâs a strange thing. Thereâs only so much film that you can put through the gate, you get two takes from a roll I guess. The thing is, itâs very loud. Itâs a very noisy piece of equipment and itâs quite cumbersome, itâs quite a largeâyou donât hold an IMAX camera, I mean you can steadicam it. But of course you have to loop, you have to dub everything you do on the IMAX because you canât hear the dialogue.
Did you shoot a lot with the camera?
Oldman: Yeah quite a fair bit, actually. Itâs the last one, the third one in the trilogy. Itâs a great story, itâs gonna be pretty epic.