Because You Asked For It: ‘Akira’ Live Action Remake is No More

Posted by Dr. Cole Abaius (cole.abaius@filmschoolrejects.com) on June 15, 2009

I highly doubt that many of you out there will want to throw on your black mourning jewelry for this one. Mostly because mourning jewelry hasn’t been popular since the Civil War, but also because it didn’t seem like many of you were down with Akira hitting big screens again with Leonardo DiCaprio taking the role of Kaneda.

So here’s the great news for those of you dreading it – the flick is dead.

According to Bloody Disgusting, what would have been the debut film of Ruairi Robinson is now “dead as a doornail.” Unfortunately, there’s very little in the way of details as to why the project, that was slated over at Warners and DiCaprio’s own Appian Way, fell apart. Of course, it was a fairly ambitious project that the production team was attempting to turn into a two-part epic.

Which is what I don’t understand. I get that the tone of Akira is huge, but the film itself is only two hours long.

Hopefully this will free up some time for the studio so they can find some other sacred territory to remake. Expect the announcement that Spirited Away will be getting a live-action remake any day now.

What do you think?

Read more articles by Dr. Cole Abaius