Akira is one of those on again, off again projects that has haunted Hollywood for years. Word that Warner Bros. had rights to adapt Katsuhiro Otomo’s classic manga and anime first broke in 2002, and news about the movie has faded in and out occasionally ever since.

At one stage, Keanu Reeves was thought to be attached. Later, it was said that director Jaume Collet-Serra was in line to make it, with Garrett Hedlund and Kristen Stewart said to be among the cast. But Reeves’ name was soon detached from the project while Collet-Serra, who was asked about Akira by Collider last March, said the future of the adaptation was “a Warner Bros. question.”

Since then, it’s been announced that Akira‘s still happening with the movie being handled by Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company, Appian Way, and Sons of Anarchy screenwriter Marco J. Ramirez penning the script.

We’ve now heard from a source close to Warner Bros. that the studio is planning to make a trilogy of films based on Akira – all the better to do justice to Otomo’s sprawling dystopian sci-fi yarn, perhaps.