Screenwriter Talkes ‘Akira’

Screenwriter Gary Whitta (The Book of Eli) recently spoke about his involvement with the live-action ‘Akira’ film, which he wrote an early draft of the script for, saying, “…I haven’t worked on it for about a year. The version I worked on was about going back to the source and doing the manga version. We were going to adapt the whole six-episode graphic novel.”

Whitta added that ‘Akira’ creator Katsuhiro Otomo has been involved a bit with the project, stating, “We got notes from [Otomo] and we kept in touch, but we never had a formal meeting or anything. The script I worked on was very, very preliminary. We did a couple of drafts of the script but, when I was there at least, it never got wrapped up to the point where I think he would get really hands on.”

Screenwriters Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby are now working on the latest draft. No word on if they will expand on what Whitta started or start from scratch.

“They don’t keep you in the loop after you’re done,” says Whitta, “…now I go on the internet to find out what’s happening with it like everyone else.”