DiCaprio Developing Live-Action 'Akira'

(FROM HOLLYWOOD REPORTER) – Leonardo DiCaprio and Warner Bros. are teaming for a live-action adaptation of anime classic Akira, which started out as a manga in 1988 and was adapted into an animated film by Katsuhrio Otomo that same year. The original story was set in ''New Tokyo'' in 2019, after a nuclear war. A teen biker gang member is subjected to a government experiment that taps latent powers, and the gang leader is forced to try and stop the destruction that lies in his wake. The new adaptation will be set in ''New Manhattan,'' a city rebuilt by Japanese money. DiCaprio will produce via Appian Way. Ruairi Robinson is set to make his feature directorial debut on what is expected to be a two-part epic. The first film is tentatively scheduled for a summer 2009 release. (Hollywood Reporter)