Exclusives
‘Akira’ Project is Dead as a Doornail
It has been a year and a half since we broke the news exclusively here on B-D – and about a year since THR confirmed (without credit of course) – that Ruairi Robinson would be making his directorial debut on the live-action adaptation of Akira, a massive two-part apocalypse story that was being produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way and Warner Bros. Pictures. Sad news comes in this weekend as we have learned that not only has Robinson left the project, but Tetsuo and Kaneda’s adventure is “dead as a doornail,” a report we’ve confirmed with two separate sources. I can only hope it gets revived in the near future as this could have been one of the coolest effin’ movies ever.
“Akira” originated in 1988 as a manga and then as an animated film co-written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo. The story was set in a neon-lit futuristic post-nuclear war “New Tokyo” in 2019 where a teen biker gang member is subjected to a government experiment which unleashes his latent powers. The gang’s leader must find a way to stop the ensuing swathe of destruction.
With its mature themes and cutting-edge animation, “Akira” was a milestone movie in anime and even animation circles, and led the way for anime making inroads into Western pop culture in the 1990s.
The new story was to move the action to “New Manhattan,” a city rebuilt by Japanese money and was to hit theaters THIS summer.
“Akira” would have marked the feature directorial debut for Robinson who was nominated for a best animated short Oscar in 2001 for a sci-fi comedy called “Fifty Percent Grey.” He also wrote and directed a sci-fi short titled “The Silent City” (watch it at BDTV), Robinson is repped by CAA and 3 Arts Entertainment.
Director Sébastien Vaniček has been set to helm the next Evil Dead movie, but up first from the filmmaker is the creepy crawly spider horror movie Infested. An exclusive new clip gives a discomfiting closer look at the spider terror, and it’ll make you intensely afraid of all bathroom drains and fixtures.
Infested will induce a new wave of arachnophobia this week; the spider horror film arrives on Shudder on April 26, 2024.
If you’re brave enough to face your fears, watch the new clip below to get a feel for the unrelenting wave of spiders that the characters (and the audience) will face in the film.
In the film, “An underprivileged suburb has been thrown into chaos following an invasion of venomous spiders. Ordered to be placed in quarantine, the project sees inhabitants living on lockdown alongside terrifying spiders that are becoming bigger and bigger.
“The story revolves around Kaleb, who’s about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over a matter of inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend.
“Passionate about exotic animals, he comes home one day with a venomous spider and accidentally lets it slip away.”
Théo Christine (“Suprêmes”), Finnegan Oldfield (“Final Cut”), Jérôme Niel (“Smoking Causes Coughing”), Sofia Lesaffre (“Les Misérables”) and Lisa Nyarko star.
Florent Bernard co-wrote the script.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, Bloody Disgusting’s Trace Thurman raved that Infested (aka Vermines) is “one of the best spider attack movies in years,” noting in his 4-star review that the creature feature uses practical spiders – REAL SPIDERS – as much as possible. Thurman also wrote that the spider horror movie is “full of moments that will get under your skin (I kicked my legs up more than a few times in my screening).”
The spiders will be everywhere in Infested, are you ready?
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