“Akira” Japanese manga classic to get film treatment

PanARMENIAN.Net - Warner Bros. is revving up the engines again for Akira, The Hollywood Reporter reveals.

Marco J. Ramirez, the scribe who will be co-showrunning the second season of Netflix’s Daredevil, will write Akira, the Warner Bros. long-in-the-works adaptation of the Japanese manga classic.

Andrew Lazar (American Sniper) and Leonardo DiCaprio’s shingle Appian Way are producing the adaptation, which has faced plenty of ups and downs since Warners acquired the rights to the manga in 2008. While numerous writers, directors and stars darted to and from the project, the closest it came to getting made was in 2012 when Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Ken Watanabe and Helena Bonham Carter were in various stages of dealmaking.

Jaume Collet-Serra was to direct when the plug was pulled and the Vancouver facilities closed due to casting, script and budget issues.

The original manga, which ran throughout the 1980s, was set in a post-nuclear apocalypse of Neo-Tokyo and told of two brothers, both in biker gangs, who find themselves pitted against each other when one begins abusing his newly acquired telekinetic powers.

Ramirez cut his teeth on shows such as Sons of Anarchy and Da Vinci’s Demons (on which he also was producer) before writing episodes for Daredevil’s first season. From there, he graduated to run the second season with Doug Petrie, taking over from Steven DeKnight.

Drew Crevello and Nik Mavinkurve are overseeing Akira for Warners.