If Taika Waititi could go back in time, would still choose to director Thor: Love and Thunder over WB's live-action Akira movie?
Back in July 2019, reports emerged that Warner Bros. was blindsided by Waititi's decision to make a fourth Thor film for Marvel Studios instead of proceeding with Akira. The film was set to be released on May 21, 2021, but was ultimately dropped from Warner Bros. release schedule.
The zany humor in Love and Thunder was perceived to be a step too far by audiences and critics alike and Waititi's stock had dropped somewhat, in Tinseltown.
Recently, Taika'a soccer film, Next Goal Wins debuted in cinemas to poor reviews and low box office returns. Some fans are even calling for his Star Wars film to be shelved until Taika can prove he can be a little more consistent.
However, it just might finally be time for the Jojo Rabbit helmer to get his Akira adaptation off the ground. In a new interview with Inverse, it seems as if Taika is spending more time working on Akira than his Star Wars project.
Yet while Akira is ahead of Star Wars on Taika's To-Do list, there's an adaptation of Klara and the Sun that's currently his #1 priority.
"Obviously, I think people who loved the film, I want to make sure that they’ve also read the books because there’s a lot more in the books than there are in the film,” Waititi said of Katsuhiro Otomo's legendary manga. “And some people are very protective over the film, which is not quite the same as the books. So we’re drawing a lot from the books.”
This statement mostly echoes what Taika proclaimed back in 2019.
"I haven’t really started to get my head around it yet. What I wanted to do was an adaptation of the books, ‘cos a lot of people are like, ‘Don’t touch that film!’ and I’m like, ‘I’m not remaking the film, I want to go back to the book.’ A lot of the people freaking out haven’t even read the books, and there are six gigantic books to go through. It’s so rich. But (the anime) Akira is one of my favorite films; my mum took me to see it when I was 13 and it changed my life."
This latest update is but one turn in a long and strange, winding road that is Akira's live-action adaptation. The journey stretches all the way back to 2011 when Jaume Collet-Serra was slated to direct an adaptation that would star Ken Watanabe, Garret Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Ezra Miller, and Helena Bonham Carter. Just before filming was slated to begin in Vancouver, WB halted the project over budgetary concerns.
Since then, Star Trek Beyond director Justin Lin and Get Out director Jordan Peele were also attached before Waititii signed on to tackle the project in 2017.