Variety is reporting that the on again, off again production of Akira is finally getting the greenlight and will move ahead as a full length feature film from Warner Bros.
Previous reports had Garrett Hedlund, and Keanu Reeves as lead actors in the post-apocalyptic film set in NeoTokyo, but those names walked off the project a long time ago. Now, it looks like Warner Bros. is going back on the search circuit to find someone who will fit the roles of Tetsuo and Kaneda. The film is still being produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way banner, as it has since the first initial announcement of the film.
According to Variety, the movie is being considered for a potential tentpole project, but now that reports of the budget falling below $100 million have surfaced, the studio better hope Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra can work with a small budget, as anything less than out of the ballpark stellar performances and visual effects is going to be met with a lot of ho-hum from fans and regular audience goers.
5 Comments
I’ll believe it when the first non-teaser trailer shows up.
This makes me want to cry.
Reeves and the other guy are each too old to play the Akira characters. The characters, for the most part, are kids and teens! Since there aren’t any suitable teen actors to play the parts, maybe they should do an animated version of the Akira story. Oh, wait! It’s already been done! To be honest – live action Akira = Really Stupid Idea! Just go watch the frikking anime!!!
They said that a live action Lord Of The Rings wouldn’t work, either…
So true, Matthew and I was one of those who had my doubts until I saw the first LOTR film. Now if Peter Jackson were going to make an Akira movie, I might have some hope of seeing something worthwhile. Akira cost over a billion yen to make. I have no idea how much that is in US dollars. But unless the studio is planning on spending several hundred million dollars on making this movie I don’t see how it could possibly measure up to the anime.