HN Entertainment has learned that Taika Waititi will be working yet again with production Ra Vincent on his upcoming live-action adaptation of the manga/anime Akira for Warner Bros.

Ra’s credits include Thor: Ragnarok, What We Do In The Shadows, Wellington Paranormal, and Taika’s WWII anti-hate satire JoJo Rabbit. Other various art department jobs saw him working on The Hobbit and The Lord of The Ring trilogies.

Set in post-apocalyptic Tokyo, the original story revolves around a teen, Tetsuo, who discovers he has powerful telekinetic abilities that threaten the world. Once a member of a biker gang, the only person who seems to be able to stop the all-powerful and dangerous teen is his childhood friend and gang leader, Kaneda.

Despite multiple whitewashing controversies with previous incarnations of Akira at Warner Bros., Taika has promised publicly he’d be casting Asian kids along with looking to adapt directly from the manga rather than the 1988 anime film.

Filming is said to begin this July in Los Angeles, California under the working title of Box 28.

While the filming location has been officially confirmed via tax incentive applications made by the studio and released by trade outlets. The July start might be a little more tricky, Taika is currently shooting a studio feature film in Boston as a supporting actor with Ryan Reynolds in the Fox film Free Guy. While not impossible, we do think he’d likely have his hands full with pre-production duties (including casting roles) if he was about to begin filming in two months and wouldn’t have the extra time to be acting in a large action film for 20th Century Fox.

Then again, stranger things have happened.

Warner Bros. recently set the film’s release date for May 21st, 2021 directly going head-to-head with John Wick: Chapter 4.

SOURCE: HN ENTERTAINMENT