Movies
‘Akira’ Soured By Warners Lack of Taste
The only thing Warner Bros. Pictures has done right in developing a live-action Akira was hiring young up-and-coming director Ruairi Robinson. Since then they’ve gone back to their big-headed suit way of thinking and brought on Allen and Albert Hughes to direct, while also dabbled with the notion of tapping Robert Pattinson, Andrew Garfield or James McAvoy for the role of “Tetsuo,” and Garrett Hedlund, Michael Fassbender, Chris Pine, Justin Timberlake or Joaquin Phoenix for “Kaneda.” Keanu Reeves was then offered the lead, and (thankfully) declined.
Deadline is now reporting that the Hughes brothers have parted ways citing creative differences and that Warners is on the hunt for a director to quickly replace them. The project is still on fast track and now the studio is once again flirting with the aforementioned inept list of actors.
The idea of bringing the budget down always is a good idea to me, but if you’re going to embark on a daring journey, why not grow some balls and give an up-and-comer a chance to direct, and cast some no-namers so we can actually find ourselves immersed in the post-apocalyptic tale? Sigh.
The rewrite by Steve Kloves “sets the film in a rebuilt New Manhattan, where a leader of a biker gang saves his friend from a medical experiment.”
Movies
’28 Years Later’ – Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson Join Long Awaited Sequel
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (Annihilation, Men), the director and writer behind 2002’s hit horror film 28 Days Later, are reteaming for the long-awaited sequel, 28 Years Later. THR reports that the sequel has cast Jodie Comer (Alone in the Dark, “Killing Eve”), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kraven the Hunter), and Ralph Fiennes (The Menu).
The plan is for Garland to write 28 Years Later and Boyle to direct, with Garland also planning on writing at least one more sequel to the franchise – director Nia DaCosta is currently in talks to helm the second installment.
No word on plot details as of this time, or who Comer, Taylor-Johnson, and Fiennes may play.
28 Days Later received a follow up in 2007 with 28 Weeks Later, which was executive produced by Boyle and Garland but directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Now, the pair hope to launch a new trilogy with 28 Years Later. The plan is for Garland to write all three entries, with Boyle helming the first installment.
Boyle and Garland will also produce alongside original producer Andrew Macdonald and Peter Rice, the former head of Fox Searchlight Pictures, the division of one-time studio Twentieth Century Fox that originally backed the British-made movie and its sequel.
The original film starred Cillian Murphy “as a man who wakes up from a coma after a bicycle accident to find England now a desolate, post-apocalyptic collapse, thanks to a virus that turned its victims into raging killers. The man then navigates the landscape, meeting a survivor played by Naomie Harris and a maniacal army major, played by Christopher Eccleston.”
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) is on board as executive producer, though the actor isn’t set to appear in the film…yet.
Talks of a third installment in the franchise have been coming and going for the last several years now – at one point, it was going to be titled 28 Months Later – but it looks like this one is finally getting off the ground here in 2024 thanks to this casting news. Stay tuned for more updates soon!
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