It was a bit too good to be true. Book of Eli helmer Albert Hughes was preparing to take on directorial duties for Warner Bros. planned live adaptation of Akira. Not anymore.

Source: Deadline

The twists and turns on the Warner Bros adaptation of anime artist Katsuhiro Otomo’s graphic novel Akira continue. Director Albert Hughes is exiting the movie, I’m told. Insiders say that it is an amicable creative differences parting of the ways. Warner Bros will try to put him on another movie right away (Hughes and his brother Allen directed the hit The Book of Eli and WB topper Jeff Robinov is their former agent and is very close with them). Hughes is coming to Hollywood next week to take meetings with his WME reps and look at scripts, hoping to find his next movie at Warner Bros.

This is a bit of a bummer. Although I’m not convinced that Akira is the best anime property to turn into live action, like others poor choices before, it was at least in very talented hands with regard to direction. The plan is to still fast track this film into theaters so the idea is that we’ll find out who will be filling in the role of Director within a reasonable amount of time. Great, now they have to find a cast and a director.