Are they going to make a live-action Akira or not? It was announced a couple of years ago and put on the fast-track (the original plan would have seen it released last year), before disappearing, but re-emerging every so often with rumours and half-news. Overall though, in the past few months it’s seemed pretty much like the project was dead.
However, it turns out that live-action Akira isn’t the corpse many suspected it to be, as THR reports that The Hughes Brothers, who made The Book Of Eli and From Hell, are now in negotiations with Warner to direct the movie.
Well, actually it’s said to be two movies, with the densely plotted and bizarre world of the anime and manga originals getting split in half and spread across two live-action movies. The action will also be moved from a post-apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo to New Manhattan, where two friends in a biker gang deal with the after-effects of an accident that gives one of them psychic powers. How they’re going to deal with the utterly bizarre ending of the original hasn’t been revealed, but I’m already expecting fans to be pissed at the changes, because I can’t imagine a studio greenlighting a live action version without toning down the denouement.
I have to say the Hughes Brothers perplex me somewhat. Their re-emergence after nearly a decade with The Book Of Eli was treated like the return of the prodigal sons, but they’ve never made a film that was more than okay. Even Book Of Eli is yet to hit the $100 million worldwide gross mark. Presumably Warner feels they’re right for Akira as they like to play with big ideas, which the Japanese original is certainly full of, and they make highly stylised, dark, violent movies. However so far all their films have been a lot of promise that wasn’t really delivered on. Nevertheless, Warner still seems to think they’re a good bet for Akira.