Akira Film Adaptation Pre-Release Thread

This is unexpected. Evidently Warner Bros. really liked what Albert and Allen Hughes did with The Book of Eli, because the brothers are reportedly finalizing a deal to direct the long-discussed live-action adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga Akira. Originally floated in early 2008 as a two-part film to be directed by Ruairi Robinson, the films were put off by the WGA strike, then the scripts took forever to crack and the project was reported dead. In September of last year the Akira remake was said to be alive and well, and that brings us to this interesting point. Did the Hughes Brothers show the proper chops in The Book of Eli to pull this off?

Vulture has the news, and says that the plan is once again to make two films, the better to cram in all of the six-volume graphic novel’s complexity. (Recall if you will that the animated film was produced and released before the serial manga had finished publication, and was written with a different final act.) Vulture says the first film is due out next year, which is a quick turnaround for what seems like a huge project.