It’s a movie that hasn’t entirely won over fans of the original movie (or George Takei for that matter), but it looks like the live action adaptation of Akira has hit a bump in the road.
At a press conference for his upcoming action movie Run All Night (starring Liam Neeson), director Jaume Collet-Serra was asked about the production and when we can start hearing some movement. His answer?
“No, no. There’s nothing”.
He then told reporters that questions about Akira should be directed to Warner Bros., who it appears is holding up the start date. But it’s not just the studio that is holding back Collet-Serra from his movie, but the fact he is looking for a bit of time off after filming Run All Night back-t0-back with his previous Liam Neeson action movie Non-Stop.
“I truly will not make a decision on a movie for a few months because I’ve done these two movies in three years without any time off so I cannot wait for this movie to come out and just fade away,” he told the press. “So my next movie’s not gonna be for a while, let’s put it this way.”
The adaptation came under fire last year when it was reported to feature an all-white cast, something that George Takei took offence too when he petitioned against it. Casting choices included Robert Pattinson (Twilight), Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man) and James McAvoy (X-Men: Days of Future Past) for Testuo and Garrett Hedlund (TRON: Legacy), Michael Fassbender (X-Men: Days of Future Past), Chris Pine (Horrible Bosses 2), Joaquin Phoenix (Her) and Justin Timberlake (Friends with Benefits) for Kaneda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONsp_bmDYXc
Originally published March 9, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
