When Albert Hughes hightailed it from directing Warner Brothers' live-action Akira
film, it was just the latest episode in a comedy of errors for the production. The studio wanted big names to help make the astronomical budget more palatable. Hughes wanted his own choices for the two key roles of the teen bikers who wind up in the middle of a massive government experiment gone wrong. More and more names turned the film down, making it less and less likely that it would even get made. Then Steve Kloves(Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
) was brought in to draft a new script that would slice down the costs. And then we heard nothing. Not since May, when Hughes dropped out. Now in the last two days there have been two reports indicating that Akira is far from dead.The first came yesterday when it was revealed that the Polish Brothers(The Astronaut Farmer
) had turned down a chance to direct the film. No big loss in my opinion, but today's news is a definite plus. Jaume Collet-Serra(Orphan
, Unknown
) is now in talks for the job. Collet-Serra is also in contention right now to direct the sequel to 300. I was hoping he'd nab the GI Joe: Cobra Strikes job before it went to Jon Chu. On the financial front, Variety reports that the budge has been slashed to roughly $90M. If you recall the earliest talk about, this was going to be a planned two-parter, with a budget hovering around $200M. Um, that ain't happening. It's possible there won't even be a second film. That remains to be seen at this point.
But who is Warner Brothers going to choose to be the face of this film? We've heard names floated around before like Garrett Hedlund(Tron Legacy
), Robert Pattinson, and Zac Efron. There were even older folks like Keanu Reeves(!!!!), Brad Pitt(!!!!!!!) and Michael Fassbender(??). So it's tough to gauge where the studio wants to go.
