Hughes Brothers To Direct WB’ Live-Action ‘Akira’ Film

Although the Hughes Brothers haven’t been pulling in the dough Warner Brothers expect with “The Book of Eli,” somehow it has convinced the studio heads that they’d be good enough to director what is perhaps the most sought after script on the WB development slate. Vulture reports that The Hughes Brothers have been chosen to direct the live-action adaptation of the manga-turned-anime-classic, “Akira.”

Katsuhiro Otomo’s beloved manga masterpiece “Akira” has been a project that’s been just about untouchable due to its ambitious nature until now. “Children of Men” and “Iron Man” screenwriters Hank Ostby and Mark Fergus have been working on adapting the screenplay. Joseph Gordon Levitt had been tied to the proposed feature for months along with Leonardo DiCaprio, whose Appian Way company is also producing Akira.

“Akira” is set in an urban metropolis ruled by anarchy where moral ambiguity is the way of life and no one is safe from corruption. It’s rumored that both WB and Appian are planning to make two Akira features out of respect for the source material. The six part manga series will apparently be told over two features, with thre three books compromising part one.

This is the part I don’t really understand, because if the studios really cared, they could have just made it into a trilogy. Of course, as Collider points out “stretching the story into two parts may be counting on an appreciation for source faithfulness that that does not yet exist. Overdosing on the details is risky. Just ask the Watchmen.”

Source: Collider