Summary
After more than two decades of development hell and millions of dollars spent on pre-production, Warner Bros. is officially stepping back from remaking the timeless 1988 anime classicAkira. Chances are, someone else will attempt to bring a live-action remake to life, though.
What is there to say aboutAkirathat hasn’t already been said? IfWarner Bros.has spent this long trying to make a newAkirafilm, its clear how important it is. Based on the serialized 1980s manga of the same name, 1988’sAkirawas a landmark film upon release and continues to be one of the most beloved sci-fi movies of all time to this very day. There isno overstating just how influentialAkiraisin terms of bringing Japanese culture stateside, and its overall stylistic impact can still be felt thanks to projects likeCyberpunk 2077. There have been homages to the iconic “Akira slide” in television shows likeBatman: The Animated SeriesandStar Wars: Clone Wars,and films likeNopeandX-Men Origins: Wolverine. The movie’s legendary action sequences have influenced everything fromThe MatrixtoPuss in Boots: The Last Wish. All of this makes it unsurprising that Hollywood would try to bring anAkiralive-action remake to life.
According toThe Hollywood Reporter,Warner Bros. has decided to let its holding of theAkirafilm rights lapse, meaning any studio can reach out to original rights holder Kodansha, to try and get a remake done.Warner Bros. first picked up the rights toAkiraway back in 2002 and has been trying to get a new film made ever since. Not even bringing Leonardo DiCaprio on board as a producer got the film through its seeminglyunending cycle of development hell.Now, Warner Bros. has wiped its hands of the project and is moving on entirely.
Warner Bros. No Longer Has The Film Rights For AnAkiraRemake After Trying To Get A Film Done For 20+ Years
It’s not as if people haven’t been trying to geta live-actionAkirafilm madefor years now. Even before Warner Bros. picked up the rights in 2002, Sony Pictures spent years trying to get a movie made in the 1990s to no avail. WB has hired numerous directors over the years, and not one of them could crack this particular nut.Blade’s Stephen Norrington was the first, followed by Irish filmmaker Ruairí Robinson. After those two, the Hughes brothers—best known forMenace II SocietyandThe Book of Eli—were next in line. Then it wasBlack Adam’s Jaume Collet-Serra.
Collet-Serra left the project by 2017, and Warner Bros. had conversations withGeorge Miller, Justin Lin, and Jordan Peele about taking over the film’s production. Finally, WB brought Taika Waititi on board and gave the film a 2021 release date. Unfortunately, Waititi decided to shootThor: Love and Thunderfirst, which movedAkiraback and caused the project to stall out yet again.
At this point, it seems like anAkiralive-action remake is simply cursed, but that won’t stop some Hollywood studio from getting the rights again and starting all over from scratch. Perhaps all the remake needs is another two decades in the oven?
