Oh Akira, will you ever get made? Warner Bros’ live-action adaptation seems to be going nowhere fast. Actors and directors keep attaching themselves to the project only to drop like flies shortly after. Today, Variety tells us that yet another filmmaker is circling the film, Jaume Collet-Serra.
Yes, that’s right, Warner Bros. is handing their $90 million (although that will likely go up) tentpole film to the man responsible for gems such as House of Wax, Goal II: Living the Dream, Orphan and Unknown. The director’s involvement isn’t 100% confirmed yet but Variety seems pretty sure that this is who the job will go to.
Sure, the man has made some money for the studio but my god are his films bad. I mean have you seen Unknown? Or House of Wax? Hell, even Orphan was near unwatchable. Giving a project this big to a director this crummy is an odd choice. Perhaps the studio is just desperate to get the damn thing made.
Now to be fair, not all of his films turned out bad because of his directing skills. I mean take Unknown for example, that film had severe script issues and Collet-Serra did give it his best shot despite the shoddy writing. That being said, his films consistently turn out pretty awful, which must say something about the director.
But, if that’s who WB wants to go with then so be it. Truthfully, I really don’t care about Akira at this point, mostly because I seriously don’t think it will ever be made. If it does eventually find itself in production though, with Jaume Collet-Serra behind the camera, I sure hope that the cast infront is strong enough to carry the film.