The Hughes brothers, best known for their urban crime drama Menace II Society and more recently The Book of Eli, will be bringing the cyberpunk Akira manga to the silver screen, says New York magazine.
The screen version will be penned by Iron Man writers Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. Instead of trying to cram all of 2,000 plus pages of the Akira manga epic into two hours, Warner Bros. is planning on releasing the film in two parts. Each part would cover three volumes of the manga. (Not entirely convinced the world even needs a Hollywood adaptation of Akira!)
The Hughes brothers could be a good choice: Menace II Society was solid and Book of Eli looks cool. Too bad Dead Presidents and From Hell were crap.
This is unconfirmed, but we do not imagine that Warner Bros. will greenlight an entire Japanese cast for the picture.
Originally released in 1982, Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira debuted. The manga become a feature film anime, directed by Otomo. Akira changed the way many outside Japan thought about Japanese animation.
Over the years, Akira has gotten several video game adaptations, including 1988 Famicom game as well as a PS2 titles. Look forward to the rushed game adaptions of this upcoming feature film!
Vulture Exclusive: The Hughes Brothers to Direct the Akira Remake — Vulture [NY Mag via ANN]