A live-action remake of the cult classic Akira has gotten its release date. Warner Bros. has announced that the Akira adaptation will open on May 21st, 2021 and is to be directed by Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok, What We Do In The Shadows).
Since the late 1990s, there have been rumblings and talk about making this cult classic into a live action film, but none of these efforts have come to bear any fruit. It was back in April of this year that the remake received an $18.5 million tax credit in the state of California where the film will be shot. Headed up by Warner Bros and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions, this is one of the biggest tax credit allocations the state has seen in recent history.
The new adaptation of the animated film will generate an estimated $92 million in qualified spending, $43 million in wages, employ more than 5,000 extras/stand-ins and will be filmed entirely in California for a total of 71 filming days.
Katsuhiro Otomo's animated sci-fi action film Akira, which was released in 1988, depicts a dystopian version of Tokyo in the year 2019. Set in a post World War III world - which decimated the Japanese capital in 1988 - the rebuilt city of Neo-Tokyo is filled with roving motorcycle gangs and civil strife. The story's protagonist Shotaro Kaneda - the leader of the roving gang known as the Capsules - soon finds himself fighting alongside an underground revolutionary organization to rescue his friend Tetsuo, who has been detained by the government after he develops deadly psychic powers.
Cameron is Mixmag's Jr. Editor. Follow him on Twitter
Read this next!
The Akria score is being released on vinyl for the first time ever
Listen to Bwana reimagine the Akira soundtrack
LuckyMe unveils audio-visual stream of Bwana's Akria-themed mixtape