Otaku have been freaking out for years over the news that Warner Brothers might dare, dare, to touch their precious “Akira”, as if it were “Citizen Kane” instead of just an okay movie. But the freaking out will hit a fever pitch now that Warners seems to have solved two pretty big problems, part one being the massive budget (properly adapting “Akira” apparently was going to cost $300 million back when the guy who directed “Catwoman” was going to do it) and part two being the crappy script.

And I’m not saying that to be controversial and annoy otaku, I genuinely believe the script was hugely flawed because it tried to cram in one thousand or so pages of the original manga into two hours. So, how has Warner Brothers figured out how to lower the budget and make a movie that people who aren’t cosplaying as those creepy little old midgets might sit through?

By only adapting the first three volumes of the manga, and going from there. Also, it’s being directed by one of the Hughes brothers, Albert Hughes (From Hell, The Book of Eli), so pretty much this is about as good as it’s going to get.

As for the “Catwoman” guy, last we heard, he’s going to be making live-action versions of Miyazaki films. But don’t worry; he’s promised he’s going to show the same respect to them that he did to Catwoman.

[ via Comics Alliance ]