There are two Hughes brothers: Albert and Allen Hughes. They're twins! One of them, website Deadline.com reports, is apparently going to work on the film version of Akira.
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!)
According to Deadline.com, Allen Hughes will take the lead on Akira, while his brother Albert will concentrate on an upcoming pilot for HBO titled Gentlemen of Leisure, which a spin-off of their documentary American Pimp. None of this has been officially confirmed, but if true, it is unknown whether the two will split credit or not. Typically, the brothers divide up work on the set with one focusing on the technical elements, while the other focuses on the actors.
The Hughes Brothers most recently directed The Book of Eli.
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.
Are The Hughes Brothers Looking To Divide And Conquer On Pic Projects? [Deadline via Ain't It Cool News]