For 23 years now, Warner Bros. has been trying to make a live-action version of anime classic Akira, an effort that has reportedly burnt through tens of millions of dollars, lots of big-name creatives, and the tenures of god only knows how many hapless executives in the process. And now, it’s finally over, with THR reporting that the studio has finally allowed the film rights to the property to lapse back to original manga publisher Kodansha. Which is now set to begin polishing up a package to shop the rights to a new studio or streamer, because pattern recognition is not always Hollywood’s strongest suit.
You’d really think someone might have picked up something from all of Warner Bros.’ failed efforts, which began back in 2002, when the studio first acquired the film rights to the story. (Originally a manga written and drawn by Katsuhiro Otomo, and then adapted into a landmark anime film in 1988.) Originally, the film was going to be handed to Blade director Stephen Norrington, but after his League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen bombed, the project began flitting through the hands of a massive number of creatives. Over the decades, Leonardo DiCaprio, Garret Hedlund, Helena Bonham-Carter, Gary Whitta, the Hughes brothers, Jaume Collet-Sera, and many more had their names attached to the doomed project at various points. The film’s last gasp came in 2017, when Taika Waititi—flirting with the mainstream after the success of Thor: Ragnarok—came aboard to write and direct a version. But Waititi eventually lost interest in the project, leading Warner Bros. to finally give up their hopes of doing a live-action version of that one motorcycle slide that everybody has copied in other movies like a billion times already. (Hey, Jordan Peele.)
Hollywood has generally struggled with adapting anime classics to film, with movies like Ghost In The Shell and Alita: Battle Angel wrestling with how much of the original look, flavor, and vibe of those stories to try to import for Western audiences. Akira is especially brutal in that regard, with a story heavily influenced by the cyberpunk nihilism of the 1980s, and which eventually gives way to stomach-churning body horror. It’s not clear what anyone actually wants from the idea of rendering it in live-action, beyond the basic appeal of name recognition; still, we’re apparently going to see someone try to pick up where Warner Bros.’ two decades of failure left off.
