The Variety magazine reported that Warner Bros. has green-lit the live action film adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira cyberpunk manga and anime, and filming will start in late February or early March.

The Akira live action movie adaptation is 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.

Last July, Variety had reported that Warner hired director Jaume Collett-Serra (Unknown, Orphan, House of Wax) to direct the film, which was "being reenvisioned as a $90 million" blockbuster project.

According to an interview with Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, two of the scriptwriters who were involved with the in-development American remake, Katsuhiro Otomo, author of “Akira,” gave his blessings to a "re-imagination" of his works.

So far, no actors have been confirmed. It is remembered that Star Trek's George Takei commented and promoted petitions against casting of Caucasian actors in anime/manga adaptation for roles meant to be Japanese.