We learned a couple of weeks ago that Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi is in some level of talks with Warner Bros. about taking on the Akira project for the studio as they’re really intent on making this happen after years of development and work across the Pacific. What this round of talks has revealed is that they’re still looking to do it as a two-film project with the original six-volume omnibus run of the manga being split roughly in half as needed.
Waititi has now talked about it a bit with the folks at IGN that he has been approached to do the project and had a few things to say about it. The director hasn’t confirmed taking on the position by any means and the dialogue was a little cagey as one would expect. When asked about his thoughts on the property and how he would want to adapt it if he does take it on:
“I actually love the books. Love the movie, but I would not do a remake of the movie. I would do an adaptation of the books,” Waititi said.
When asked about the fairly regular rumors about how casting would be done with it as we’ve seen a whole lot of names attached over the years that completely changes the original narrative, he replied saying, “Yeah. actually Asian teenagers would be the way to do it for me and probably no, not, like no name, I mean sort of unfound, untapped talent. Yeah, I’d probably want to take it a bit back more towards the books.”
Plot Concept: The lives of two streetwise teenage friends, Tetsuo and Kaneda, change forever when dormant paranormal abilities begin to waken in Tetsuo, who becomes a target for a shadowy government operation, a group who will stop at nothing to prevent another catastrophe like that which leveled Tokyo.