Remember when they said they were going to make a live action adaptation of the classic Anime feature Akira?
Well fanboys released a collective sigh of relief when they found the adpatation of their beloved film was shelved. It was going to be transplanted to an American adaptation in a postapocalyptic Manhattan instead of Neo Tokyo, and then the project stalled out and disappeared.
Well get ready to inhale again. It seems that DiCaprio and Warner Brothers never stopped working on it and are eagerly awaiting the next script by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby.
Fergus and Ostby have some serious geek cred under their belts as they previously worked on the screenplays for Children of Men, Iron Man and First Snow. Apparently their version of Akira is still set in post-apocalyptic Manhattan, but it’s unclear if the adaptation is being planned as two films, as it was previously rumoured. If all goes well, Akira could go into production sometime next year with a pretty substantial budget behind it.
Now originally all the fears were that they would take the edgy animated feature and dumb it down for the American audience with product placement and make it a fluffy action flick.
The original is a classic, and as long as they stay true to that feel and look, I don’t mind that its being set in Manhattan.
I look forward to seeing what they will do with this and I for one am glad its back on.
