Firefly is a big geeky internet thing. As in, if you are geeky in the slightest, and have access to the internet, most likely you have either heard of it or directly seen it. Highly likely the latter. Even if some didn't like it (I have even read some people say that it was cliche'd, to which I have to scratch my head), those same know about it.
Get outside the internet and that knowledge goes down, significantly. Browncoats (what big Firefly fans call themselves) who tried to save the show did so via the internet, so there's quite a bit floating around, still. And there are a lot more who watched the show who are vocally in support of it than are vocally against it. I'm actually surprised no one has spat venomous hate fumed about Pete's comment.
As to an Akira remake to live action. The downgrade from R to PG-13 has me concerned. Not so much about language (as that was never a big deal for the original), but about the rather grotesque and gory violence the anime contained. Cutting out too much of it will water down the tension and horror the original engendered, which is a terrible shame.
