Leonardo Dicaprio will produce 'Akira'.
Leonardo Dicaprio is teaming up with the Sons of Anarchy writer Marco J. Ramirez for an adaptation of the Japanese manga classic Akira. DiCaprio will produce under the Appian Way banner with American Sniper's Andrew Lazar also joining the team.
Leonardo DiCaprio is working on Akira for Warner Bros
Warners has been throwing ideas around for the project since acquiring the rights to Akira in 2008 Since then numerous writers, directors and stars have circled the movie and a version was close to being made with Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Ken Watanabe and Helen Bonham Carter in 2012. Jaume Collet-Serra was due to direct before Warners pulled the plug.
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Running throughout the 1980s, the original Akira was set in a post-nuclear apocalypse of Neo-Tokyo and told of two biker gang brothers who find themselves pitted against each other when one begins abusing his new telekinetic powers.
Ramirez learned his trade on Sons of Anarchy and Da Vinci's Demons though he rose to prominence after writing episodes for the first season of Netflix's Daredevil. He's since graduated to run the second season with Doug Petrie, taking over from Steven DeKnight.
Drew Crevello and Nik Mavinkurve are overseeing Akira for Warners.
Meanwhile, DiCaprio will next star in Oscar winner Alejandro González Iñárritu's The Revenant, about frontiersman Hugh Glass, who in the 1820s set out on a path of vengeance against those who left him for dead after a bear mauling. Tom Hardy and Domhnall Gleeson co-star. The film is set for an initial limited release on December 15, 2015.
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