You have to give the folks at Warner Brothers and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way production company for their perseverance in trying to get a live action version of Katsuhiro Otomo’s anime classic Akira up and running. Over the past couple of years they have worked with directors Ruairi Robinson and Albert Hughes and writers Gary Whitta, Albert Torres, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby and Steve Kloves but still haven’t gotten the project to a point where Warners is willing to put up the money to make the story of a motorcycle gang who try to free their friend from a military medical experiment gone awry.
Perhaps Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra can succeed where everyone else haven’t been able to. According to Variety he is the latest director to enter into what has become a meat grinder for creative types.
Of course Collet-Serra’s filmography – Unknown, Orphan, House of Wax and Goal II – doesn’t inspire a whole lot of confidence that he will be.
Collet-Serra will also have not as much money as the previous creative types had been promised. Today’s news on his hiring also included the tidbit that Warners is looking to budget the film at $90 million. This is down from the $150 million the studio was hoping to invest in the planned summer tentpole flick. Are they having second thoughts about the whole project after spending seven-figures to acquire and another unknown amount in development these past couple of years?
