‘Akira’ Finds New Life With ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Director Taika Waititi In Talks
Warner Bros. has been looking to adaptKatsuhiro Otomo’s 1988 filmAkirainto a pair of big budget, live-action feature films for nearly a decade, with the first attempt hoping to star Leonardo DiCaprioback in 2008. If you reading this site any time between then and now, you’ve probably stumbled across tons of articles about the movie as it picked up (and dropped) various talent with producers fighting to get it made. It’s been a constant presence in development hell for as long as I’ve been writing about film news online.
Now, yet again, WB has breathed new life into the project and has attached another fascinating director to potentially translate the story into a massive blockbuster.Taika Waititi, the New Zealand-born filmmaker responsible for films likeWhat We Do In The Shadowsand the upcomingThor: Ragnarok, is the latest person to get sucked into this film’s whirlpool. Will he be the one to finally break the curse and get this damn thing made already?
Deadlinehas the news about Waititi’s involvement, which is currently only at the “he’s in talks” stage. So nothing’s been signed yet, but it’s easy to see why Warner Bros. would be interested in locking him down for this ambitious project: he’s proven that he can make funny, character-driven comedies with movies like the delightfulHunt For The Wilderpeople, and from everything we’ve seen so far, he’s done the impossible over at Marvel by making aThorsequel that looks colorful, epic, and a heck of a lot of fun. And as a person of color himself, Waititi is an inspired choice to direct this movie; assuming he’s interested, I’d much rather have him on board than someone like Daniel Espinosa (Safe House, Life), who was attached earlier this year.
Espinosa andLights Outhelmer David Sandberg werereportedly in contentionfor the director’s chair earlier this year, before Get Out director Jordan Peele was offered the movie andultimately turned it downto make more original projects instead. I imagine many of us are hoping that Waititi makes a similar decision, but again, if we’re going to get anAkiramovie eventually – and it seems like WB executives are going to make that a certainty – maybe Waititi has the right sensibilities to give us a version of this that won’t feel burdened with the weight of ten years of development on its back. (Look no further thanThe Dark Towerearlier this year for another long-in-the-works project that fell flat on its face upon finally being released.)
If a deal does stick, this will have to wait until Waititi finishesJojo Rabbit, a World War II dramedy he wrote and will direct next for Fox Searchlight. DiCaprio and his Appian Way Productions are still attached toAkiraas producers after all these years, and it’ll be interesting to see what they do about casting in the wake ofthe recentHellboyincidentand cries of Hollywood whitewashing growing louder with the rise of social media. This project has attempted to cast primarily white actors throughout its entire existence, but it got started before Twitter and Facebook were as prominent as they are today.
