The possibility of a live-action take of the 1988 anime movie Akira from Warner Bros is no longer, as Deadline has confirmed that the right have lapsed, now reverted back to manga publisher Kodansha.
The movie directed by Katsuhiro Ôtomo follows teenage biker gang member who turns into a rampaging psychic psychopath after a secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo. The protag learns he has telekinetic abilities which are dangerous to the word. His best friend is the only guy who can stop him.
The Burbank, CA lot has had the movie rights since 2002 with directors like Stephen Norrington, Albert Hughes, Jaume Collet-Serra and Taika Waititi circling. Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian way was circling and at one point, Akira, had an $18.5M California Tax credit. Boardwalk Empire star Michael Pitt was even attached to the project at one point, and then Garret Hedlund. Kristen Stewart, Helena Bonham-Carter and Ken Watanabe even kicked the tires on Akira.
Here’s the thing: turning anime into live action movies or even a TV series is hard. Two of the most prolific projects were failures: Paramount turned 1995’s Ghost in the Shell into a $110M big screen take starring Scarlett Johansson. The movie tanked grossing just over $40M and under $170M worldwide, rejected by fans for whitewashing the original. The result served as a harbinger to motion picture studios to avoid anime big screen adaptation. Netflix made a 2021 series Cowboy Bebop starring John Cho, Mustafa Shakir and Daniella Pineda. In a total shock, the streamer axed a second season for the series less than a month after it dropped back in December 2021. Shinichiro Watanabe, the original creator of the Cowboy Bebop animated series, expressed to Forbes that he couldn’t watch the live-action take.
THR who first reported the story about Akira‘s right today says that development went into eight figures over 20 years. Reportedly there’s a bidding war for Akira, but no parties were named.
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