Now, stay with us on this one. Because it’s a *particularly* deep dig into the ole’ rumour pile. But it’s an interesting one nonetheless.
Hollywood, being the rabid raccoon feasting on the scraps of an overflowing bin that it is, is dead keen on pushing forward with a live-action adaptation of the 1988 anime icon ‘Akira.’
The original film, a landmark in Japanese animation, one of the greatest science-fiction films of all time, and a general fucking masterpiece in every sense of the word, is one of the true cult hits in the medium and still stands as a gamechanger for the anime genre as a whole. And Hollywood would very much like to see it return to the big screen as a live-action adaptation.
The adaptation has long been on the cards; attempted numerous times in various forms with an assortment of different people having a crack at it. At some point last year Warner Bros had ‘Daredevil‘ season two showrunner Marco J. Ramirez knock together a script for the project, which followed on from another undisclosed time where Christopher Nolan was maybe sorta thinking about bass blasting out a trilogy of films on the story.
But all that? Not happening. Phooey to it. Instead, Warner is now reportedly circling ‘Star Trek Beyond,’ ‘Fast & Furious,’ and ‘True Detective‘ director Justin Lin to spearhead the project.
Lin has the release of ‘Star Trek Beyond‘ coming up in July, which could see him become an in-demand property should the film find success. Vin Diesel already wants Lin to return to the ‘Fast & Furious‘ franchise to “finish what [he] started” by helming the final film in the franchise, Furious 10 which already has a release date scheduled in 2021. Lin previously directed 4 films in the franchise, covering numbers 3 through 6, helping to reinvigorate the struggling series.
While there’s plenty of time in between now and then to fart out an Akira adaptation, where things start to get really interesting is when you consider the fact that Lin is also absolutely frothing to make ‘Space Jam 2,’ of all things.
The project, quite obviously, is also a Warner Bros property, and reports suggest that the studio might be more willing to green light the LeBron James/Bugs Bunny vehicle should Lin throw the studio a bone and help them out with Akira.
Whether or not this means a live-action Akira will be any good obviously remains to be seen; lord knows Hollywood’s track-record with adaptations of anime isn’t exactly stellar, as the shudderingly-awkward, bordering on kind-of sort-of racist promo material for the upcoming ‘Ghost in the Shell‘ movie agonisingly attests.
But hey. If anyone’s gonna get the hyper-violent, unbelievably over-the-top badassery of Akira successfully into a live-action American film anytime soon, Lin’s probably the guy to do it.
Still, it’s mere scuttlebutt at this stage. So make of all of this what you will.
Source: /Film.
