Akira comes to life

Neo-Tokyo is about to EXPLODE! And the guy with his hand on the detonator is… Ruairi Robinson?

As was rumored several months ago by the fine freaks at Bloody Disgusting, Irish director Ruairi Robinson will be bringing Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s post-apocalyptic AKIRA from printed page and animation cel to human and CGI life. Warner Bros. plans to turn the seemingly endless manga series into two live-action features, the first of which is due in Summer 2009. The new flick reportedly shifts the setting to a devastated and reconstructed Manhattan.

Director Steve Norrington (BLADE, LXG) was involved in the project years ago before he entered semi-retirement and the property went into limbo. Robinson, who is making his feature debut, reportedly landed the job based on his impressive dystopic sci-fi short THE SILENT CITY, which you can watch RIGHT HERE.

AKIRA follows a gang of superbike-riding pill-eating teens (these kids love pills so much, they wear clothing with pictures of pills on them, delicious pills) who roam the futuristic roads fighting with rivals and screaming a lot. One of the members gets caught up in a government experiment and develops psychic powers, leading to a massive destructive battle with the gang’s leader.