I may have clasped my hands with joy at this news. Pardon me if I sound a wee bit too gleeful here. The Hollywood Reporter has broke the news that Warner Brothers has taken a second look at their Akira remake and blinked a few times. Maybe they saw the escalating budget. Maybe they noticed the fan outcry. Maybe they realized they’re lead is Garret Freakin’ Hedlund. Regardless, the studio heads have shut down production and sent everyone home.
The film’s producers hope that a second pass on the script in an effort to lower the budget to $70 million (an astonishingly low number for a film like this) will get Warners to turn the lights back on. I begrudgingly understand their optimism, since this film has been in various degrees of development for years. But waning interest and fan discouragement is working against them. I’ll be honest: hopefully this time the Akira remake will finally die.
We’ll keep you updated as this story develops.
