AKIRA Refuses To Die In Hollywood

Warner Bros., whose slate revolves around big-idea, big-budget projects that translate easily around the world, has not given up on Akira, inspired, however loosely at this point, on Otomo Katsuhiro's manga. The studio put the project 'on the back burner' in January 2012, just before production was scheduled to begin, with reports indicating the budget was too high. Director Jaume Collet-Serra left the project at that time, but was reportedly in talks to return in August 2013, with production penciled in for spring 2014. 

Obviously, that didn't happen, but the project is still inching forward. Dante Harper, who was the first writer to take a swing at adapting Sakurazaka Hiroshi's All You Need Is Kill, which became Edge of Tomorrow, is working with Collet-Serra, the studio and producers on Akira. Collet-Serra is finishing up work on the thriller Run All Night, reteaming him with Liam Neeson, which is due out in February 2015. After that, who knows?

(Thanks to The Playlist for fishing this out of a story on Deadline.)