Warner Bros. aiming for live-action version of 'Akira'

“Akira” is probably the most famous anime feature film of all time.

Most people with any interest whatsoever in Japanese animated movies are familiar with this epic tale of psychics, motorcycle punks and the military battling for survival in the streets of a futuristic Tokyo.

Katsuhiro Otomo's 'Akira'Warner Bros. is trying to bring the 1988 animated film to life, with a flesh-and-blood cast. This is the third rumored attempt to recreate “Akira,” originally a six-volume comic book, in live-action.

Studios in the past have balked at the huge budget it would take to do the film justice. But, since “Transformers” and other recent blockbusters have shown that you can do anything with enough computing power, I'm guessing Warner Bros. has a good shot at finally making this happen.

Bloody-Disgusting.com reports Irish director Ruairi Robinson is attached to the production. Amazingly, this would be Robinson's feature film debut. But, he does a few mind-blowing short films to his credit, including the Oscar-nominated “Fifty Percent Grey.”

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com)