Warner Bros. is to make a live-action feature based on the Japanese hit animation Akira. Currently in pre-production, the film is set to be released as early as 2004.

The Hollywood studio has concluded a deal with Kodansha, the Japanese publisher which holds all rights to the animated feature, to produce a live-action feature. Released in 1988, the animated feature grossed $12m at the Japanese box office and enjoyed moderate success in other territories such as Europe, Asia and the US.

Written and Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, Akira is an action thriller set in 2019, about a young boy with supernatural powers who demolishes Tokyo. Akira was first devised in Kodansha's Young Magazine comic, where it ran from December 1982 to June 1990 becoming a best-selling series of paperback books with more than 6 million copies sold in Japan

Released on DVD the title has sold over 300,000 copies in North America since its release in July 2001, while 10,000 units of the game for Sony's Play Station have sold in Japan since its release in February 2002. The game will be released in the US later this year.

Otomo is currently producing his latest animated feature, Steam Boy, an action thriller set in London in the 19th century. Written and directed by Otomo, the feature is financed by a consortium of backers headed by Bandai Visual and is scheduled to be released in Japan in 2003.

Meanwhile, Sony Pictures Entertainment is to make a CG-animated feature based on the Japanese cult TV animation Astro Boy, produced by animation veteran Osamu Tezuka. Astro Boy was the first TV animation ever released in the Japan, running to a total of 193 episodes from 1963 to 1967.

Sony's version of Astro Boy is to be directed by Eric Leighton (Dinosaur), written by Ken Kaufman (Space Cowboys) and will be released in 2004.

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