Warner Bros. has officially announced that it is relinquishing the rights to the live-action adaptation of Akira. As early as 2019, there were reports that Warner Bros. planned to produce this live-action film, with Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions set to produce and Taika Waititi directing. Fast forward to today, according to exclusive news from Hollywood Report, Warner Bros. has returned the rights to the Japanese manga publisher Kodansha.<\/p>\n
As early as 2002, Warner Bros. secured the rights to the remake of AKIRA. Initially, it was planned to be directed by Stephen Norrington, with Jon Peters producing. However, over the following two decades, Warner Bros. invested millions\u2014eventually reaching tens of millions\u2014into the project, yet ultimately, it never came to fruition. As time passed, Legendary began to co-finance the film, and with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson joining the production team, the remake project finally gained new momentum.<\/p>\n
In 2017, Taika Waititi confirmed his involvement in the project, helping to write the script and direct, which propelled the remake plan forward. The film successfully secured a tax credit in California and was initially set to release on May 21, 2021. At that time, the production team had established a casting office in Japan aimed at finding actors from across the country. However, due to Waititi’s commitments to multiple films and series, the shooting schedule kept changing, ultimately preventing him from rejoining the production of AKIRA, causing the project to further stall.<\/p>\n
Now, Warner Bros. has decided to return the rights to Kodansha, which opens up new opportunities for other film companies to fight for the live-action adaptation rights of AKIRA. This could spark a new wave of rights battles, leaving us eagerly awaiting updates on the developments.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Warner Bros. has officially given up its rights to produce the Akira live-action film, opening the door for other studios to bid and rekindling interest in this iconic manga adaptation with an uncertain future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":807648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"Warner Bros. initially secured the rights to adapt Akira in 2002, investing tens of millions over two decades without producing the film. Notable efforts included involvement from Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions and director Taika Waititi, who was set to start filming in 2021. Due to scheduling conflicts and project delays, Warner Bros. has now returned the rights to Japanese publisher Kodansha, paving the way for new competitors in the rights sale. This prolonged development showcases the challenges of adapting Akira to live-action, highlighting the complexities of high-profile movie productions based on beloved manga franchises."},"categories":[5057],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-811438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-moviestv-en"},"raw_content":"\n
Warner Bros. has officially announced that it is relinquishing the rights to the live-action adaptation of Akira. As early as 2019, there were reports that Warner Bros. planned to produce this live-action film, with Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions set to produce and Taika Waititi directing. Fast forward to today, according to exclusive news from Hollywood Report, Warner Bros. has returned the rights to the Japanese manga publisher Kodansha.<\/p>\n
As early as 2002, Warner Bros. secured the rights to the remake of AKIRA. Initially, it was planned to be directed by Stephen Norrington, with Jon Peters producing. However, over the following two decades, Warner Bros. invested millions\u2014eventually reaching tens of millions\u2014into the project, yet ultimately, it never came to fruition. As time passed, Legendary began to co-finance the film, and with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson joining the production team, the remake project finally gained new momentum.<\/p>\n
In 2017, Taika Waititi confirmed his involvement in the project, helping to write the script and direct, which propelled the remake plan forward. The film successfully secured a tax credit in California and was initially set to release on May 21, 2021. At that time, the production team had established a casting office in Japan aimed at finding actors from across the country. However, due to Waititi's commitments to multiple films and series, the shooting schedule kept changing, ultimately preventing him from rejoining the production of AKIRA, causing the project to further stall.<\/p>\n
Now, Warner Bros. has decided to return the rights to Kodansha, which opens up new opportunities for other film companies to fight for the live-action adaptation rights of AKIRA. This could spark a new wave of rights battles, leaving us eagerly awaiting updates on the developments.<\/p>\n\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ztylezman.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ztylezman.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ztylezman.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ztylezman.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ztylezman.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ztylezman.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ztylezman.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ztylezman.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ztylezman.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ztylezman.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}