Maybe this one won’t be so… pfft. Sorry, I can’t keep a straight face on that.
Earlier today, entertainment news site Deadline reported that director Taika Waititi negotiating with Warner Bros over the director’s chair for the live-action Akira movie. As of press time, no further details have been revealed.
Warner Bros Akira movie will adapt Katsuhiro Otomo’s movie of the same name. Deadline describes the movie as: The story takes place in the rebuilt New Manhattan where a leader of a biker gang saves his friend from a medical experiment.
The feature is being described as “a priority” for Warner, who picked up the live-action film rights with Legendary Pictures for a sum of money only described as “7 figures”, implying several million dollars. The studio intends to produce two films, with each covering three books in the series.
Andrew Lazar, along with Appian Way’s Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson are attached as producers on the feature. An initial script was written by Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Gary Whitta (Book of Eli), which originally had Ruairi Robinson slated to direct.
In 2015, Marco J. Ramirez (Orange is the New Black, Daredevil Season 2) was hired to pen a new draft of the script.
The feature came close to a start date several years ago, before Warner closed their Vancouver production office. They alowed test options deals for Dane DeHaan and Michael Pitt, who were both vying for the role of Tetsuo. Other confirmed talents at the time included Garrett Hedlund, Kristin Stewart, and (potentially) Ken Watanabe and Helena Bonham Carter.
Earlier this year, Tracking Board reported that Get Out director Jordan Peele was being courted to direct. Last year, Sneider reported that Warner was courting Star Trek Beyond director Justin Lin to helm the project.
Taika Waititi has been active in the industry since 1999. He made up half of the comedy duo The Humourbeasts, starring with Jemaine Clement. The duo won New Zealand’s highest comedy accolade, the Billy T Award, in 1999.
He made his directorial debut in 2005, with short film Two Cars, One Night. The feature was nominated for an Academy award that year, and took home over half a dozen accolades across the globe. His first feature film, Eagle vs Shark, hit North American theaters in 2007.
Waititi’s second feature, Boy, debuted at Sundance in 2010, and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.
Source: Deadline
