Japanese anime is one of those things that Hollywood is going to keep trying to adapt, somehow forgetting the fact that it is niche as hell in the West. Something about it keeps on luring in filmmakers, siren-like, to crash their careers on the rocks. Like Akira.
A live-action adaptation of this has been in the works since pretty much the day I first discovered online movie communities. Millions have been spent with zero output to show outside a few pieces of concept art and some hopeful announcements.
Now Warner Bros. Pictures has decided it is on a hiding to nothing and has walked away from the rights. After 23 years, the rights have reverted back to manga publisher Kodansha, the publisher of Katsuhiro Otomo’s original work from 1982.
This has opened the floodgates to another round of masochists as studios and streamers are lining up to take over. Surely the sensible thing would be to let the Japanese handle it, as per Godzilla Minus One?
A quick Google search shows the graveyard of failure around the property. Previously linked directors include Stephen Norrington, Taika Waititi, and Jaume Collet-Sera. Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, and Ken Watanabe were all linked as talent. Leonardo DiCaprio even had a go at pushing it forward once.
Make it in Japan, it remains niche. Update it to the US, as some efforts were planning to, and you get savaged by the hardcore fans and the type of people who get excited about such things. It is lose-lose.
Akira was set in the city of Neo-Tokyo after World War III. Biker gang member Tetsuo discovers he has powerful telekinetic abilities that threaten the world. The only person who can potentially control him is his childhood friend and gang leader, Kaneda.
