The live-action remake of classic anime Akira is still possible despite the awful Hollywood interpretations of Ghost in the Shell and Dragonball Z.
However, this interpretation could be different – notice we only said "could" – as the creators are trying to focus on material from the manga rather than the anime.
Thor: Ragnarok and What We Do In The Shadows director Taika Waititi was previously rumoured to be working on the movie, and now he's confirmed it's still happening. Sort of.
Speaking to Dazed Digital, he said: "I haven't really started to get my head around it yet.
"What I wanted to do was an adaptation of the books, 'cos a lot of people are like, 'Don't touch that film!' and I'm like, 'I'm not remaking the film, I want to go back to the book'.
"A lot of the people freaking out haven't even read the books, and there are six gigantic books to go through," the director explained.
"It's so rich. But (the anime) Akira is one of my favourite films; my mum took me to see it when I was 13 and it changed my life."
Numerous Hollywood movies such as Ghost in the Shell have been blighted by whitewashing scandals, along with Netflix's recent blockbuster series Altered Carbon.
However, the director has previously stated that he'd avoid any such backlash by focussing on a core cast of relatively unknown Asian leads.
Taika told IGN: "[Casting] Asian teenagers would be the way to do it for me and probably no, not, like no name, I mean sort of unfound, untapped talent," he said.
"Yeah, I'd probably want to take it a bit back more towards the books."
We've compiled a list of some of the most shocking Hollywood whitewashing scandals featuring everyone from Emma Stone to Matt Damon.
Elsewhere, Taika has revealed that he's planning a sequel to his cult classic What We Do In the Shadows, focusing on the werewolves from the original movie.
Laurence Mozafari is Digital Spy’s Editor-in-Chief, specialising in TV, movies, music and gaming - he also hosts the official Obsessed with Peaky Blinders podcast on BBC Sounds. Laurence oversees all content, social media, and video on DS. He won BSME's New Editor 2020, PPA's 30 Under 30, and was highly commended for AOP's Digital Editor award.
