Warner Bros has pushed the button to finally do the remake of the "Akira" after being stuck for years. The studio is hiring new key people of doing the live-action adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira.
SlashFilm reported that Marco Ramirez, famous TV scriptwriter, has been hired by Warner Bros to write the screenplay of back-from-the-dead Akira adaptation after its attempt in 2008 to adapt it into film.
Obviously, the studio was really ambitious in making this film because it pursued biggest names of actors in Hollywood since Akira was a huge project. Names of Brad Pitt, James Franco, and Keanu Reeves were really considered.
Forbes recently reported that director Jaume Collet-Serra has been removed from the project. Though, this is not the first time that a director for this project has left. Since 2008, there are many directors and writers have been associated in the remake of Akira. The good side of this news is that people who signed up for the project who think that this story has no strong characters should better go and work for other projects.
Ollie Bader, the contributor of Forbes, further said that if Ramirez is wise, he won't take the anime adaption but rather concentrate on the manga. It is observed that the manga adaptation would allow Ramirez "to pool from a greater resource of narrative" since it's significantly more involved. Besides, Ramirez' forte is on adapting comics to movie or TV series.
In addition, CinemaBlend said that Akira has paved the way to make the manga a legitimate genre due to its menacing and defiant tone. It obviously has that "engrossing action set pieces and sensational animation." All of those fundamental attributes of a manga can be well translated in films containing that specific ferocious energy.
Having Ramirez on board for this project seems to be the light at the end of the tunnel. Warner Bros has acquired the rights for movie adaptation since 2002. It has been 13 years that the studio made attempts in producing the film. The latest development was in 2012 when former Akira director Jaume Collet-Serra started his negotiations with Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Ken Watanabe, and Helena Bonham Carter. But as mentioned earlier, Serra has been dropped as the director of the project.
So, when fans thought that it has been shut down permanently, the production of Akira has been resurrected from the dead as they hired Marco Ramirez to pen the movie script. Whether he is going the anime route or the manga route, fans have to sit tight and stay tune for more updates.
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