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Forbes
25 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Live-Action ‘Akira' Leaves Warner Bros. After Decades In Production Hell
'Akira' is now up for grabs as to its live-action rights. After decades of multiple people trying to get a live-action Akira off the ground, the rights have reverted back to Kodansha. I mean, I started covering this live-action adaptation back in 2015, and almost every year after that, new people were attached to write or direct the movie. During that time, I even managed to interview Katsuhiro Otomo, who wrote the original manga and directed the seminal 1988 anime adaptation. In that interview, Otomo revealed that he had final sign-off on the live-action scenario. So if Otomo didn't like the scenario, it meant the movie didn't get made. My guess is that Otomo has blocked every live-action scenario to date, and that's why Warner Bros. has let the live-action rights revert back to Kodansha. It's also likely that whoever takes the option on the live-action rights to Akira will still have to get past Otomo on its scenario. Honestly, if that's the case, then as long as Otomo is around, I doubt we will ever see a live-action adaptation. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder To be honest, I am entirely fine with that. I mean, people have been joking about how terrible an American film of Akira would be since 2008. Hollywood still doesn't really get manga and anime, let alone video games. Akira is one of those cultural heirlooms that should be treated with the respect it deserves, and Hollywood's never been big on giving any kind of respect to Japanese creative talent. In any case, Akira's live-action rights are now back with Kodansha, and it will be interesting to see who will pick it up next, as no doubt Otomo will be just as strict with them as he has been with everyone else. In the meantime, feel free to check out my Blu-ray review of the anime, which you should absolutely watch if you haven't done so already. Follow me on X, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and am currently featured in the Giant Robots exhibition currently touring Japan.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
DC's Peacemaker Sequel Series Isn't Canceled, James Gunn Confirms
A new update has confirmed that James Gunn's DC series is not canceled and remains in active development. Gunn debunked fan rumors on Threads that claimed the show was canceled or reworked. The director confirmed its status after months of silence since the project's original announcement in early 2023. Responding to a fan question on Threads about rumors that the Waller show was being reworked into a Checkmate series, James Gunn replied, 'Yes,' when asked if the rumors were 'B.S.' He also confirmed with a simple 'Yes' that Waller remains in development. Gunn introduced the Waller series in January 2023 as part of the DCU's first slate, which included five films and five shows. Viola Davis leads the cast as Amanda Waller. She stars alongside Steve Agee as John Economos, Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo, and Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr. The show originally targeted a late 2024 release, but the 2023 Hollywood strikes reportedly delayed production. Warner Bros. has not announced a new release date. Meanwhile, Davis has continued portraying Waller in other DC projects. She voiced the character in four episodes of the animated Creature Commandos series, released in 2024. She also appeared in Peacemaker Season 1, which Gunn confirmed is canon within the DCU, excluding the Justice League cameo. Warner Bros. plans to release Waller on its streaming platform, Max, but has not disclosed an official date. In a January 2024 Threads post, Gunn stated Waller does not appear in Superman, but that comment predates the film's production. ARGUS now operates under Rick Flag Sr.'s control, a storyline explored in Peacemaker Season 2. As a result, Waller's role in the DCU could shift significantly. Rumors claimed DC had recently canceled the Waller series. However, Gunn clarified in a separate post that the mystery cancellation did not involve Waller and reaffirmed its active status in the upcoming slate. Superman, the DCU's first live-action film, releases on July 11, 2025. Originally reported by Anubhav Chaudhry on SuperHeroHype. The post DC's Peacemaker Sequel Series Isn't Canceled, James Gunn Confirms appeared first on - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
Forbes
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Brad Pitt's ‘F1' Revving Up Big Opening Weekend Box Office
NORTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - JULY 09: Brad Pitt, star of the upcoming Formula One based movie, Apex, and ... More Damson Idris, co-star of the upcoming Formula One based movie, Apex, walk on the grid in front of Carlos Sainz of Spain driving (55) the Ferrari SF-23 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone Circuit on July 09, 2023 in Northampton, England. (Photo by) Brad Pitt's Formula 1 race car drama F1: The Movie is running laps around fellow newcomer M3GAN 2.0 and a batch of holdovers at the weekend box office. Directed by Top Gun: Maverick helmer Joseph Kosinski, 'F1: The Movie' stars Pitt as Sonny Hayes, an aging race car driver who rejoins the Formula 1 circuit after a near-fatal crash 30 years earlier. Javier Bardem stars as a former Formula 1 teammate-turned-owner who convinces Sonny to help save his flailing team, while Kerry Condon plays a Formula 1 race car designer and Damson Idris stars as a young and arrogant driver who discounts Sonny's value because of his age. F1: The Movie is projected by Deadline to earn $55 million-plus in its opening weekend from 3,661 North American theaters. The projection falls in line with Variety's mid-week forecast for the film to open in the $50 million to $60 million range. Variety noted that F1: The Movie — which was produced by Apple Original Films and is being distributed by Warner Bros. — had a $200 million production budget before prints and advertising costs. DreamWorks and Universal Pictures' live-action version of How to Train Your Dragon is projected by Deadline to take the No. 2 spot at the weekend box office with $18.5 million in ticket sales from 4,127 North American theaters. Should that projection hold, it will boost the film's domestic take to $199.1 million. Disney and Pixar's animated feature Elio — which made Pixar history (and not in a good) way by having the worst opening weekend in the company's history — appears to be heading to a No. 3 finish at the domestic box office this weekend. Deadline projects that the film will earn $11 million to $12 million through Sunday from 3,750 North American theaters. Should the projection hold, it will up Elio's running tally to $43.4 million. Allison Williams in "M3GAN 2 0." 'M3GAN 2.0' Is In A Tight Race With '28 Years Later' For Fourth Place Universal Pictures' M3GAN 2.0, which is the sequel to the 2022 hit horror thriller M3GAN, is struggling in its opening weekend and is vying for a No. 4 finish at the domestic box office. Deadline projects that the film is looking to open with $10 million in ticket sales from 3,112 theaters against a $25 million budget before P&A. The Hollywood Reporter, which reported that M3GAN 2.0's budget was $15 million before P&A, projected a $20 million for the Blumhouse-produced movie, while Deadline said the film 'would be lucky' to make the same amount of money. Now, it appears that M3GAN 2.0 will be lucky to make half of either of the trade publications' projections. Also in the running for the No. 4 spot is Sony Pictures Entertainment's zombie thriller 28 Years Later. Deadline is projecting that the Danny Boyle-directed horror film will make $10 million from 3,440 theaters domestically. If that estimate holds, it will up the film's North American take to $50.6 million through Sunday. Note: This box office report will be updated throughout the weekend with the most current numbers as they become available. The final numbers for this weekend's box office will be released on Monday.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Akira: Taika Waititi's Live-Action Movie Gets Disappointing Update
Taika Waititi's live-action movie has received a disappointing update courtesy of a new report from THR. According to a new report from THR, the Akira live-action movie at Warner Bros. Discovery is officially not happening. The movie studio has reportedly let go of the movie rights, reverting them back to Kodansha, the manga publisher that originally released Katsuhiro Otomo's story in 1982. THR's report mentions that producers and other talent have already begun 'lining up' to try and attach themselves to the property for future pitches. As for Waititi's long-in-development movie, this means the project is likely fully over with. Akira's movie development has been a long and extremely complicated one. Warner Bros. picked up the rights to the incredibly popular manga in 2002, and originally had Stephen Norrington (Blade) attached as a director. That began two decades of what THR describes as development hell, with writers and directors like Garry Whitta, Mark Fergus, Hawk Otsby, Steve Kloves, and more all attached at one point or another. In 2017, Waititi was announced to be writing and directing a movie based on the manga. This project even received a 2021 release date and was in the process of casting, according to THR. However, Waititi became too busy with other projects, and never recommitted to the project. Originally released in 1982, Akira tells the story of a post-apocalyptic and futuristic 'Neo-Tokyo,' and centers on Shotaro Kaneda, a gang leader, the militant revolutionary Kei, and more. The manga received an animated film in 1988, which is often heralded as one of the greatest films ever made and something that helped make anime as a whole a pop culture staple, although it does deviate heavily from the source material. (Source: The Hollywood Reporter) The post Akira: Taika Waititi's Live-Action Movie Gets Disappointing Update appeared first on - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Everything to know about ‘The Batman 2': Returning cast, script finalized
Director Matt Reeves' version of The Batman hit theaters in 2022 and jump-started the post-COVID box office with a dynamic $369 million domestic and $772 million worldwide. Critics were enraptured by Robert Pattinson's darker, grittier, noir-style caped crusader, giving the DC Studios movie an 85 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a 72 score on Metacritic — not too shabby for a comic-book character who's been skulking around Gotham City since 1939. With every successful blockbuster comes the inevitable sequel announcement, and The Batman was no different. But ever since being green-lit by Warner Bros., the follow-up has been hampered with production hiccups and delayed at least a year on the release schedule. Read on for everything to know about The Batman 2. More from Gold Derby 'F1: The Movie' - Instant Oscar predictions The Emmys have one last chance to make things right with 'The Comeback' Mere months after The Batman was released in March 2022, the sequel was officially announced at CinemaCon in April 2022. Pattinson would return as reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne who fought crime as the gruff-voiced Batman, while Reeves would write (with Mattson Tomlin) and direct the new movie. "Matt took one of our most iconic and beloved superheroes and delivered a fresh vision," then-Warner Bros. studio boss Toby Emmerich said. 'Matt Reeves, Rob Pattinson, and the entire team will be taking audiences back to Gotham with The Batman 2." Besides Pattinson, three other cast members from The Batman were in talks for the sequel. Jeffrey Wright (Gotham Police Commissioner James "Jim" Gordon) told Deadline, "I haven't read the script yet, but that's the plan," referring to his eventual return. Andy Serkis (butler Alfred Pennyworth) revealed at 2024's ACE Superhero Comic Con, "I loved working with Rob Pattinson, and I really look forward to playing Alfred once more." Serkis later added, "[Reeves] told me the story of The Batman 2, and I was so excited for it." And Reeves confirmed that Colin Farrell's Oz Cobb, aka the Penguin, would come back during a 2024 Comic-Con panel for the HBO spin-off show The Penguin. Initially, the sequel was set to begin principal photography in November 2023, according to ScreenRant, but it was pushed back because of the dual Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes. In February 2025, Pattinson told Deadline that The Batman 2 would start shooting "at the end of the year," which puts production in late fall or early winter 2025. "Everything feels so long ago, because COVID just erased three years," the actor said. Pattinson didn't give away the storyline, though he did tease that the plot is "cool." According to Production Weekly, principal photography will take place at Warner Bros. Studios in Leavesden, England, the same studio that was used for portions of The Batman. In April 2025, yet another delay was hinted at, this one involving Pattinson's potential casting in Dune: Part Three. Deadline reported that Dune franchise director Denis Villeneuve had his eyes on Pattinson as "a new addition to the all-star ensemble" for the upcoming third film. While sources close to the project declined to comment, Deadline's Justin Kroll wrote on X that since Dune: Part Three "will shoot this summer," the actor "could shoot in reasonable time and have it not affect Batman 2, whenever that goes into production." In other words, online rumors suggesting that Pattinson's involvement in Dune 3 means that The Batman 2 will be canceled are flat-out wrong. After originally securing a theatrical release date of Oct. 2, 2026, The Batman 2 was pushed back a full year to Oct. 1, 2027, to give it more time to prep and film. Now, an untitled Alejandro González Iñárritu and Tom Cruise movie will take that 2026 calendar date instead, per The Hollywood Reporter. "Matt is committed to making the best film he possibly can, and no one can accurately guess exactly how long a script will take to write," DC Studios co-chief James Gunn said in December 2024 about the yearlong holdup. "Once there is a finished script, there is around two years for pre-production, shooting, and post-production on big films." In January 2023, the sequel was initially titled The Batman: Part II. But that didn't last long, as it was officially untitled as of December 2024, because Reeves was still writing the script. The new title has yet to be announced. Note that previous Batman movie sequels within the DC universe did not include numbers in their titles, and were instead called Batman Returns (1992), Batman Forever (1995), Batman & Robin (1997), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). On June 27, 2025, Reeves and Tomlin posted the blurred-out title page of the Batman 2 script on Instagram along with the caption, "Partners in Crime (Fighters)," plus three bat emojis. Variety confirmed that this meant the script was, indeed, finished. Pattinson follows in a long line of Batman actors who've appeared on the big screen, including Lewis Wilson (1943), Robert Lowery (1949), Adam West (1966), Michael Keaton (1989-92), Val Kilmer (1995), George Clooney (1997), Christian Bale (2005-12), and Ben Affleck (2016-21). Scroll through our gallery below of all of the modern-day Batman movies ranked. SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of Gold Derby Tom Cruise movies: 17 greatest films ranked worst to best 'It was wonderful to be on that ride': Christian Slater talks his beloved roles, from cult classics ('Heathers,' 'True Romance') to TV hits ('Mr. Robot,' 'Dexter: Original Sin') 'It almost killed me': Horror maestro Mike Flanagan looks back at career-making hits from 'Gerald's Game' to 'Hill House' to 'Life of Chuck' Click here to read the full article.
