“Logo Text Riding Into Neo-Tookyo Is Going to Take A Little Bit Longer. After more than Two Decdes of Developing A Live-action Take on Japanese Sci-Fi Classic Akira, Warner Bros. HAS LET GO OF THE MOVIE RIGHTS. The Rights Have Reverked Back to Kodansha, The Manga Publisher That First Put Out The Postapocalyptic Cyberpunk Story”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
Riding INTO NEO-TOKYO IS GOING TO TAKE A LITTLE BIT Longer.
After more than Two Decdes of Developing A Live-directly Take on Japanese Sci-Fi Classic AkiraWarner Bros. HAS LET GO OF THE MOVIE RIGHTS.
The Rights Have Reverked Back to Kodansha, The Manga Publisher That First Put the Postapocalyptic Cyberpunk Story Property in prepiation to be presented to Select Studio and Streamers.
FIRST APPEARING AS A GENRE-DEFINING Manga That Ran Througout The 1980s, Akira Is Best Known As the Seminal 1988 Anime That Was A Denting Moment for Adult Animation and Japanese Culture in Terms of Reaching A Worldwide Audence.
Warners Picked Up The Movie Rights in 2002 and Set Blade Filmmaker Stephen Norrington to Direct An Adptation, With Jon Pets Production.
What followed is one of the Longest Development Hell Escapades in Hollywood History, as the Studio would go on to spend millions, Well Into the Eight Figures, Over the NEXT TWO Decades. The Norrington Version Withered (The Box Office Failure of His League of Extraordinary Gentlemen WAS A Contribution Factor) and Several Years Later, Legendary Was Brough on Board to Co-Finance. Leonardo Dicaprio and Jennifer Davisson Came on Board to Produce, Sticking on the Project Like Glue Until The End.
Writers and Directors that Came and Went Include Gary Whitta, Mark Fergus, Hawk Otsby, Steve Kloves, Allen and Albert Hughes, and Jaume Collet-Sera. StoryBoards and concept art from tommy Lee Edwards, Chris Weton, Ray Lai and Many More Were Were Commission and Ten File in Drawers.
The Project Faced Budgetary Battles, Cultural Battles (at One Point Neo Tokyo Became New Manhattan), and Whitewashing Accusations Even as Itered Preproduction Seven. In 2012, Warners Shut Down Production Offices in Vancouver in Order To Take A Pause to Retherink The Project. At the Time, It Had A Budget of $ 90 Million and TRON: Legacy Headliner Garrett Hedlund Sigrated on to Star. Kirsten Stewart, Helena Bonham-Carter and Ken Watanabe Were in Negotias. IT took The Studio A FEW YEARS TO RECOVER AND MOVE ON.
Finally in 2017, Taika Waititi Came on Board to Help Write and Direct A Take. That version, too, went pretty far. The Project Nabbed California Film Tax Credits and Had A May 21, 2021, Release Date John Wick: Chapter 4) and have the casting reps on the ground in japan as it was aiming for an all-japanese cast. That was before waititi Got Pulled Into Several Directions – He Was in Post On Jojo RabbitDirecting an Episode of The Mandalorian and Writing Thor: Love and Thunder. And the Project’s Scheredule Kept Shifting while Gaining Two Addrational Producers, Garrett Basch and Jeremy Kleiner. Waititi Never Recommitted to Akira And the Project Has Been Dormont Ever Since.
Set in Postapocalyptic Tokyo, Akira Tells The Story of a Teen Named Tetsuo, Who Is In A Biker Gang and Who Discovers He Has Powerful Telekinetic Abilities that Threaten the World. The only person sems to be able to stop the All-Powerful and Dangerous Teen Is His Childhood Friend and Gang Leader, Kaneda.
The Rights to Akira Are The Latest to Join A List of a FEW Other High-Proferties Whose Screen Rights Have Become Available This Year. In March, Horror Classic Texas Chainsaw Massacre Went on the Market, As did the Rights to the Jason Bourne Spy Stories, Which Had Called Universal Home for Over Two Decades.
As Akira Looks to A New Home for It Big-Big-Screen Ambitions, Perhaps A Quote from The Anime Is Appropritate: “The Future is Not A Straight Line. It Is Field With Many Crossroads. Ourselves. ”