Taika Waititi and Leonardo DiCaprio's Live-Action Adaptation of AKIRA Is Moving Forward at WB
Warner Bros. and producer Leonardo DiCaprio have been trying to develop a live-action adaptation of Akira for over a decade. One of the last things that we heard about the post-apocalyptic cyberpunk film was that Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) was looking to direct the film and is working on it.
The California Film Commission has announced that the adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira will be filmed entirely in the state of California and will also receive $18 million in tax credits for shooting in the state. Deadline also reports that the film’s shooting production should take place over the course of two and a half months.
When previously talking about how he is looking to handle the film, Waititi said:
“What I wanted to do was an adaptation of the books, ’cos a lot of people are like, ‘Don’t touch that film!’ and I’m like, ‘I’m not remaking the film, I want to go back to the book.’ A lot of the people freaking out haven’t even read the books, and there are six gigantic books to go through. It’s so rich. But (the anime) Akira is one of my favourite films; my mum took me to see it when I was 13 and it changed my life.”
I hope that Waititi does end up directing the film! I’d love to see what he ends up doing with it, and I think that he would actually deliver a film that the fans would enjoy and appreciate. He’s already said that he will be casting Asian teenagers in the lead roles.
With Waititi at the helm, do you think this Akira movie could end up being good?