Will we ever see a live-action movie?
I feel like it has been quite a while since we heard any new information on an upcoming live action Akira. The last time we did though was a report that the upcoming film had gained two screenwriters that were set to work on the project. We finally have some more news regarding the film from screenwriter Gary Whitta who spoke in a recent press conference. After being asked about the 'Akira' film (Whitta was the original screenwriter on the project) he indicated that it has been a year since he worked on it last, and that any news regarding the upcoming film he heads to the internet just like everybody else.
Apparently though, he did give us an idea regarding what the script would be like, which was based on the original manga. Whitta indicated that when he wrote the original script, he got much of his information from notes diectly from manga writer Katsuhiro Otomo."...I haven't worked on it for about a year," says Whitta, "...The version I worked on was about going back to the source and doing the manga version. We were going to adapt the whole six-episode graphic novel."
Hearing that Otomo was involved in scripting the movie script (ever so slightly) is still pretty awesome. However, based on the last report which we gave you guys in September, the screenplay had already changed hands and was being scripted by screenwriters Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Iron Man). This begs the question, will the current screenplay start over completely from scratch, or have Fergus and Ostby taken Whitta's draft and simply revised it? What would you like to see? Do you want to see a live-action 'AKIRA' film? If so, who would you like to see cast as Shotaro Kaneda and Tetsuo?"We got notes from [Otomo] and we kept in touch, but we never had a formal meeting or anything. The script I worked on was very, very preliminary. We did a couple of drafts of the script but, when I was there at least, it never got wrapped up to the point where I think he would get really hands on."
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