Way back in 2007, Warner Bros. announced development of a massive new live-action adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's seminal manga Akira. Three years later it was shut down. Two years ago it was back on again. Then it was shut down again. And while we've heard nothing since, there's suddenly evidence this morning that the project is still chugging away at the studio. Marco Ramirez, writer of several episodes of Daredevil's first season, and co-showrunner of the forthcoming second, has been given the mammoth task of Akira's latest screenplay.
The Hollywood Akira, thought to be relocating to New Manhattan from Neo Tokyo, is still under the aegis of Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way production company. After several screenplay drafts, including one by Children Of Men writers Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus, Albert Hughes signed on to direct in 2010.
When he moved on, Jaume Collet-Serra (Run All Night) stepped in to replace him. Sporadic casting rumours took in Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, James Franco, Andrew Garfield, James McAvoy, Robert Pattinson, Zac Efron, Keanu Reeves, Gary Oldman, Kristen Stewart, Ken Watanabe, Garrett Hedlund and Ezra Miller. The most recent run at the script that we know about was by Harry Potter's Steve Kloves.
The talk was often of two films, each roughly covering three books of the six-volume manga (Otomo's two-hour original film was made before the books had finished, and ends differently). That was leaning into a colossal budget, however, and with the expensive likes of Tron 3 and the two-part adaptation of Stephen King's It recently shelved by their respective studios, it's likely that Ramirez's remit includes keeping the scale contained and controlled. Which would be a shame given the size of the source. But with nearly a decade of development, Warners is already in this for millions. It's only going to get more expensive.
Episodic television rather than a single feature (even if it's intended as the first in a franchise) would seem a better fit for Akira, it seems to us. Does Ramirez's experience at Netflix suggest the project is actually moving in that direction? We don't know yet, but we'll keep you posted.