Jeff Sneider, former reporter for The Wrap has revealed on his weekly video podcast that Warner Bros. is currently meeting with the director of Star Trek Beyond to gauge his interest in directing Akira. The Taiwanese American film director is best known for directing four installments in the Fast and Furious franchise ( The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6 ). In development since 2002, Stephen Norrington, Gary Whitta, Albert Hughes, Ruairi Robinson, and Jaume Collet-Serra were all attached to direct the project at one point or another.
Back in 2011, a cast that included Ken Watanabe, Garret Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Ezra Miller and Helena Bonham Carter and Collet-Serra in the director's chair came the closest to getting the project off the ground with production offices opening in Vancouver before closing a year later over budget concerns from WB. Should Star Trek Beyond open to huge numbers next month, definitely expect to see some updates on the project emerge.