A number of storyboards linked to the live-action Akira adaptation – which would have been directed by Ruairi Robinson – recently surfaced online.
The current attempt to adapt Akira for the silver screen is currently on hold, with little evidence it will be getting out of development hell any time soon, but unfortunately, Robinson’s version of the film has been dead for some time.
Jaume Collet-Serra was going to take out the youth, the motorcycle gangs, and pretty much anything else that made Akira what it is, so no fans of the story are getting tears on their pocky over the soft cancellation of his version of the project.
Robinson, however, seems to have had a clearer vision of how to make the film more like what Akira was for its original audiences when the manga was released years ago, and these newly surfaced storyboards, from concept artist Sylvain Despretz proves it.
Here we see, in these two brief scenes, a vision for the film which keeps some of the iconic features of the original tale. Though perhaps it only seems like it in comparison to what was recently in the works, since here, we at least appear to have some kids on motor bikes, and the city-destruction scene looks like it was pulled directly from the original books.
One wonders where along the process the development went so wrong. Still, we must hope the next time someone decides to adapt Akira, they’ll have better luck tackling the iconic franchise. Unfortunately, it may be more than just a few year before someone tries again.
