Director Jaume Collet-Serra recently gave an exclusive interview with Coming Soon, where he spilled the beans on a potential live-action movie adaptation of Akira, which he hopes will be his next project. In the interview, he told the site the following:

“The only way to do a live version of ‘Akira’ is to take the spirit and adapt it. It will be as different as the anime was from the manga.”

We’re not sure what to make of that, seeing how shows like The Last Airbender and Dragonball have done with Western releases. He also ruminates that one “cannot” make a movie such as Akira “and hope everyone understands it”. You can read the full interview here.

In addition, Anime News Network posted new concept art of the stalled Akira film from artist James Clyne—who did work on Avatar—which does, admittedly, look rather good. One can only hope that if and when a live-action version of Akira goes ahead, it’ll turn out the way we dream it will be.