After becoming the the first African-American writer/director to earn over $100 million in a debut film, Get Out-helmer, Jordan Peele, is being pursued by Warner Bros. to direct a live-action Akira film.
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Only a week ago, The Tracking Board’s Jeff Sneider reported that Daniel Espinosa (Life) and David Sandberd (Lights Out) were being courted by Warner Bros. to direct Akira, but while attending CinemaCon this week, Sneider has now heard that “the studio is moving aggressively to lock in Jordan Peele.”
He adds, “Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way is producing Akira with Andrew Lazar (American Sniper). Marco Ramirez (Netflix’s Daredevil) wrote the most recent draft of the script, though it’s expected that Peele would do his own pass should he close a deal.”
If Peele takes on Akira, that would be quite the surprise. Just last month, though admitting it sounded appealing, Peele said he would rather make more films like Get Out — fresh films based on his own material — than work on a big budget reboot, remake, or superhero film.
“My whole life, I’ve been like, ‘Oh, man, wouldn’t it be dope to be a part of one of these great reboots or revivals?’” Peele told Screen Junkies. “Over the past eight years, I’ve come up with four other scripts in the social horror genre.” He added, “I think what people love about this movie so far is that they can’t see it anywhere else. It’s sort of a unique film, so I feel like my responsibility to the world at this point is to keep making original films,” Peele added, “Try to do some elevated horror, fun horror, that says something. I think that’s what I’m here for.”
Then again, the money has a way of making people change their outlook. Plus, with the loads of cash he could make with Akira, he could finance more films like Get Out.
MORE: Warner Bros. Reportedly Eyeing New Directors For Live-Action Akira Film / George Miller Turned Down Akira For WB / Akira Live-Action Film Test Footage
Akira (1988) – Neo-Tokyo, 2019. The city is well on the way to rebuilding after World War III. The central characters, Kaneda and Tetsuo, two high school drop-outs, are members of a joy-riding motorcycle gang. In the opening scene, Kaneda and Tetsuo stumble upon a secret government project to develop telekinetic humans, apparently for use as weapons. Tetsuo learns of the existence of his ‘peer’ Akira, the project’s most powerful subject, and determines to challenge him…
