Jaume Collet-Serra is Back to Direct Akira

The Warner Bros. adaption of the Akira could begin production next year with Jaume Collet-Serra returning as director. Work on Akira shut down early last year due to a $90 million budget which did not sit well with Warner Bros. Although they liked the script, adjustments were deemed necessary to reduce the budget.

Meanwhile, Collet-Serra had to wait for his next project after his success with the Liam Neeson action picture Unknown, until his desire to get back in the director’s chair compelled him to leave and pursue other projects. As it turns out, his next film, Run All Night, sees him directing Neeson once again.

Akira will likely begin pre-production in spring 2014, according to Variety, after Collet-Serra wraps up Run All Night. At this stage there is no news on the size of the latest budget estimate or if rumoured cast members such as Garrett Hedlund and Kristen Stewart will also return.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company Appian Way is backing the project, following on from their last collaboration with Collet-Serra on his psychological-horror film Orphan. The writer and director of Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo, will be on board as executive producer.

“Set in New Manhattan, the cyberpunk sci-fi epic follows the leader of a biker gang who must save his friend, discovered with potentially destructive psychokinetic abilities, from government medical experiments.”

*This story comes from Daily Dead reader Jemma George