Even though Chronicle was pretty much an awesome, low-budget modern take on Akira, I’m still dying to see Warner Bros. get their once mega-budgeted adaptation into theaters.

Orphan and House of Wax‘s Jaume Collet-Serra is in discussions to return to the Akira directors chair, signing on to helm Warner Bros. adaptation of the popular anime pic, Variety reports.

“Set in New Manhattan, the cyberpunk sci-fi epic follows the leader of a biker gang who must save his friend, discovered with potentially destructive psychokinetic abilities, from government medical experiments.“

Collet-Serra left in early 2012 after production stalled. In early 2012, the studio shut down pre-production so that fixes could be made to the script, including tightening the budget from its original $90 million range, the site recaps. At the time, Collet-Serra was in such high demand coming off the recent success of the Liam Neeson action pic Unknown, that he decided to leave instead of waiting for the changes to be made so that he could pursue other projects. He eventually landed another Neeson pic, Non Stop, which bows next February.

The studio did begin looking at other directors recently, including Catfish and Paranormal Activity 3 helmers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, in hopes of finding someone who could deliver a film on a more smaller scale. But ultimately, the studio was still in love with Collet-Serra’s vision, and sources say the director found time in his schedule as well as a new way to approach the adaptation that would meet the studio’s budget request.

WB acquired the potential tentpole project for a seven-figure sum from Japanese manga publisher Kodansha in 2008.

Garrett Hedlund was attached to star but it is unknown if his schedule would still allow him to do it.