Of the many projects Taika Waititi finds himself attached to, the two with the most attention are a live-action Akira remake and a Star Wars movie for Lucasfilm. There hasn’t been a lot of information on either, perhaps because Waititi has been so busy including with his current role in Free Guy, but as part of an interview with Wired he’s provided promising updates on both.
The big one is obviously Waititi’s Star Wars film, in which he is to direct and co-write the screenplay alongside 1917 writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns. While he doesn’t offer up much, he does say that fans can expect him to add a personal spin to the galaxy far far far away…
“But we’ve got a story. I’m really excited by it because it feels very me.” Has it been a challenge to marry his irreverent tone with the operatically sincere Star Wars universe? “I tend to go down that little sincerity alleyway in my films. I like to fool the viewer into thinking ‘ha it’s this’ and then them going, ‘Damn it, you made me feel something!’”
“Feels very me” should get Waititi’s legions of fans very excited. He managed to bring his own personal flavor to the MCU with Thor: Ragnarok so why should Star Wars be any different?
Waititi’s live-action remake of Akira, based on the anime cyberpunk classic set in Neo-Tokyo, has been on the burner for a while and keeps getting pushed back. Last year Waititi seemed to be moving away from the film, but now he’s unwilling to let it go…
“I’m still trying [to make it],” he says. “I don’t wanna give up on that.”
Warner Bros. has been shepherding Akira through various troubled productions for more than a decade, with multiple filmmakers and actors passing through. Waititi has stuck around as long if not longer than any of them, so there’s some hope he might actually be the one to do it.
Meanwhile, Waititi has also completed his soccer comedy Next Goal Wins, and recently confirmed that his Flash Gordon movie will be live-action rather than animated.
