Taika Waititi swears he still plans to direct a live-acton Akira movie

Warner Bros. has been trying to make a live-action version of Akira, the seminal 1988 anime about a futuristic Tokyo plagued by biker gangs and apocalyptic government superhumans, for 17 years. Three directors have been attached to the project over the years, with many more — including Jordan Peele and George Miller — turning it down. Because how are they going to pull of the climatic scene where Tetsuo turns into a terrifying blob monster?

The latest person to be attached to the movie, Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, may have what it takes. Ragnarok was a giant blockbuster, but Waititi left his stamp on it with trippy visuals, a sense of whimsy, and a rocking soundtrack. He seems like he has the right sideways sort of sensibility to direct an Arika remake that is A) reasonably faithful to the original movie (to say nothing of the manga), and B) interesting to watch. I’ll take it.

The problem is that a lot of people have been noticing Waititi’s talent, and he has offers coming out of his ears. Right now you go to the theater and see Jojo Rabbit, his…I’m gonna say comedy…about a lonely German boy who has Adolf Hitler for an imaginary friend. And after that he’s making the fourth Thor movie, Love and Thunder. So where does that leave Akira? Said Waititi to IGN:

"Unfortunately, the timing with Akira, because we’ve been working really hard on the script, we had to keep pushing the start date for the shoot. We ended up having to push it a couple weeks too far, which actually ate into the Thor schedule, because they were very close together. And that got pushed again and again, and it just got too far into the Thor schedule to be able to make it work. And my first commitment was to Marvel to make that film, so now I’ve kind of had to take Akira and sort of shift it around to the tail-end of Thor and move it down a couple of years."

I mean, fans have already waited 17 years; what’s a few more?

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h/t The A.V. Club