Is Christopher Nolan Working On A Live-Action Akira Trilogy?
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- September 15, 2015
- Danny F. Santos
Here’s a live-action film that has been in development heck for so long, I’m pretty sure Dante may have visited it at one point in time. Akira, based on the famous Japanese manga, and adapted into the hugely popular animated film of the same name, has languished over at Warner Bros. for a while now, and has gone through several writers, directors, and production companies.
A report from Den of Geek says the WB may have found a new shepherd for the project in The Dark Knight trilogy and Interstellar director Christopher Nolan. According to their sources, Nolan has already met with a previously attached Akira filmmaker, although they didn’t disclose who. The report indicates that the film is still being produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Wa,y and still being penned by Daredevil producer Marco J. Ramirez.
There’s no official word from the WB, so take this with a grain of salt, and Den of Geek stops short of saying that Nolan will direct the film, only that he may be involved in some capacity. However, you have to wonder if this will be his next project.
What we do know is that last week, it was announced that Nolan’s next project has a scheduled release in July 2017 (hat tip: Variety). Nolan is super-secretive about his films, so it could be anything. Den of Geek pins the meeting between he and former the Akira filmmaker somewhere in the past three months, so he could have already been courted by the WB before that.
That leaves a fair amount of questions though, could Akira being going before cameras soon? I don’t think so and here’s why...
First, if the film is being planned as a trilogy now, then much of what has been developed since WB optioned the rights will probably be tossed out. Ramirez was hired this past June, so he’s probably still in the quagmire of writing a script that’s based on some pretty dense material.
Second, Den of Geek only says that Nolan met with a FORMER Akira filmmaker, so whoever it was has nothing to do with the project anymore. That meeting could have been for anything, perhaps seeing how the filmmaker was approaching the movie.
I don’t think that Nolan will go back to directing a property that isn’t original material. The Dark Knight trilogy is what put him on the map, but everything else he’s directed has been pretty successful, so there’s no reason for him to work on Akira (unless he really likes the manga/anime). At some, James Cameron will adapt Battle Angel, based on a popular manga, so there is something to be said about a major director and manga.
Nolan also takes his time with pre-production and never rushes a project, so even if there’s a screenplay that’s ready to go, I don’t see him jumping on board for a 2017 release date.
Right now, the only thing to take away from this rumor is that Akira is looking to be a trilogy of films, which makes sense, because the original manga is a huge story. Even the anime changed a lot from the manga, and ended about midway through the original story. I’m still on the fence of whether this film should even be attempted, but I’m going to keep an open mind.
Stay tuned!
