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The American Akira Has a Director (Two of ‘Em)


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?After floundering in development hell for years, the long-awaited, long-threatened American version of Akira has taken a big step to actually happening. The Hughes brothers are currently in talks with Warner Bros. to direct the adaptation of the manga classic based on the success of their recent post-apocalyptic semi-hit The Book of Eli (it probably doesn’t hurt that Warner and the Hughes have the whole “brothers” thing in common, either). Nothing’s been signed yet, though, but since this is the first time Akira has popped up in the Hollywood news in over a year (or so it seems) I figured it was worth mentioning.

Now, the last movie the Hughes brothers directed before Eli was From Hell, based on the Alan Moore graphic novel, back in 2001. I thought the movie was okay, but I’m told as an adaptation it was horrible. This does not bode particularly well for Akira fans, but I doubt anyone’s that surprised by this, right? I’m pretty sure this is the best we could ever hope for from an American Akira — a travesty of an adaptation, but a serviceable movie, because there was never any way we were going to get a good adaptation. So… yay? (Via Deadline)