Deadline has reported that Thor: Ragnarok director, TaikaWaititi is currently in talks to direct Warner Bros.’ film adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo’sAkira.
According to the description, “the story takes place in the rebuilt New Manhattan where a leader of a biker gang saves his friend from a medical experiment.” Warner Bros.’ plan for this project is to split the manga into 2 films and each film will be adapting 3 books in this series.
Waititi’s past credits have included the vampire mockumentary“What We Do In the Shadows” and his award-winning film “Hunt for the Wilderpeople”.
Warner Bros. had even courted “Get Out” director Jordan Peele to direct the movie. He passed on it on in favor of his original creations. Life helmer Daniel Espinosa and David Sandberg, who is directing Shazam, were in the running.
Debuting in Young Magazine in 1988, Katsuhiro Otomo’s cyberpunk manga was the first to be translated into English and was also adapted by the author as a classic anime soon. The story follows a young biker gang member and Neo Tokyo denizen, Tetsuo Shima, who is embroiled in a mystery involving ShotaroKaneda and many government experiments created to harness human potential for psychic proficiency. The experimentgoes awry and leaves Katsuhiro to discover the secrets of enigmatic Akira.
Warner Bros. bought the rights in 2002. The closest the film came was with Garrett Hedlund and Kristen Stewart attached to star, but the project was shelved later.
