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Column by Scott Green

File this one under "never say never"... According to Bloody Disgusting, Warner Bros. Pictures is hot to get the ball rolling on its live action remake of Katsuhiro Otomo's anime/manga classic Akira before the writers' strike becomes an issue. Reportedly, Irish director Ruairi Robinson (The Silent City) will be helming the project.

Back in 2003, Stephen Norrington (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) was attached to direct a version of the film, written by James Robinson.

In Akira, Otomo presented a vision of Tokyo destroyed by war, rebuilt, and now ready to explode under the pressure of its internal strife. The movie's clashing biker gangs and heady psychic visions became an early testament to the violent, mature side of anime when the film was brought to North America in 1989.

The anime movie is currently available in North America through Geneon. The manga, which was started before and finished after the anime, is available through Dark Horse.

Personally... the project is banished to development/legal hell, but I would rather see Guillermo del Toro's take on Otomo's claustrophobic Akira-precursor Domu.