A live-action Akira movie has been in the works for what seems like forever now, with the project coming close to fruition back in 2012 when Warner Bros. tapped Juame Collet-Sera (Run All Night, Non-Stop) to direct. However, they suddenly pulled the plug on the project due to budgetary, script and casting issues; the likes of Garret Hedlund, Chris Pine, Michael Fassbender and Kristen Stewart were attached at different stages.
Now we’re hearing word of new life being breathed into the anime-to-live-action adaptation as the studio has reportedly hired Marco Ramirez to write a totally new script for the new version, which is being produced by Leonardo DiCaprio through his Appian Way company and American’s Sniper’s Andrew Lazar.
Ramirez has been doing some great work in TV over the last few years as a writer and producer, including FX’s biker show Sons of Anarchy and notably on Netflix’s recent Daredevil TV series of which he wrote a couple of the best episodes. He will serve as co-showrunner of that show for its second season and it’s likely that his work on it has led to him shooting to the top of the studio’s list to bring the long-gestating Akira to live.
Some die hard fans of the original Japanese Akira manga – set in a post-nuclear apocalypse of “Neo Tokyo” and about two brothers in rival biker gangs who clash when one of them begins abusing his telekinetic powers – will be against them making a Westernized, live action version of the story no matter what they do. But scrapping what was evidently a bad mix and now getting Ramirez – who worked on Daredevil, a show that has heavy Eastern influences at times – seems to suggest they’re going about things in the right way this time.
Akira is just one of many live action adaptations of popular mangas on the way as there’s also Ghost in the Shell, which has Scarlett Johansson attached to star, and Robotech which James Wan is set to direct.
Source: The Wrap