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Mad Max Director George Miller Turned Down Live-Action Akira Movie

Mad Max film series director George Miller told Yahoo! Movies that he had turned down an offer to work on the live-action Akira project.

Miller said about the offer, "There was talk of it, but I've got so many things on my dance card, I don't have the time to do everything."

Miller also denied reports that Akira had served as a direct influence on his Mad Max: Fury Road film, saying, "I don't know where that came from. I'm a huge fan of anime and the precision of that and to some degree Manga, even though I don't read Japanese, but just the aesthetic of it. So Akira might have been one of the many movies but it certainly wasn't one that directly influenced Mad Max."

Daredevil and Sons of Anarchy writer and producer Marco Ramirez is writing a screenplay for Warner Brothers' proposed live-action Akira film project. The Hollywood Reporter previously listed Andrew Lazar (American Sniper) and Appian Way as the current producers, with Drew Crevello and Nik Mavinkurve overseeing the project for Warner.

Katsuhiro Ōtomo's original science-fiction action manga Akira is set in Neo-Tokyo, a city rebuilt after being destroyed in a mysterious explosion. Otomo directed his own animated film adaptation that premiered on July 16, 1988 — the same day that the story has the fictional Tokyo being destroyed. In its early proposals, the live-action film project would have moved the story's setting to "'New Manhattan,' a city rebuilt after being destroyed 31 years ago."

When the project was originally announced in 2008, it was intended to be the directorial debut for Ireland's Ruairi Robinson. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic, The Aviator) has been producing the project through his Appian Way production company. Screenwriters Gary Whitta, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Albert Torres were previously attached to the project.

In October of 2011, Warner officially green-lit the film for director Jaume Collett-Serra (Unknown, Orphan, House of Wax) to begin filming in the following February or March. Warner had held talks with Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Ken Watanabe, and Helena Bonham Carter to star in the film.

However, The Hollywood Reporter then posted that production had shut down in January 2012, before filming would have started. Warner had stalled the project to revise the script so it would be less costly.

Collett-Serra said in February 2014 that he was still working on the project, but he then told the Collider website that there was no progress on the project as of March.

Source: IGN