Now that Akira is in turnaround, Warner can look towards other properties for which they hold live-action feature rights. Now they’re working on Tite Kubo’s Bleach and they’ve hired Dan Mazeau (screenwriter of Wrath of the Titans) to adapt the story.
Peter Segal (Get Smart) is producing and may direct the film. He tells Variety he has “always been a huge fan of Bleach” which is such refreshing honesty; normally people in Hollywood tell you they had no idea what the project was about and didn’t care but there were too many zeroes on the offer to turn it down. Not saying Segal isn’t a fan, just that I’ve never heard a producer say they were anything but a lifelong fan of everything ever. Where do they find the time?
Besides directing Get Smart, Peter Segal also directed several Adam Sandler movies (Anger Management, 50 First Dates, The Longest Yard), so we can look forward to Adam Sandler playing a teenager who sees ghosts and fights Hollow, played by — who else? — Kevin James.
Masi Oka (Hiro from “Heroes”), Michael Ewing, Jason Hoffs, and Branon Coluccio will also produce the project. Bleach also has an animated series in its seventeenth season, and the manga has 75 million copies in circulation just in Japan alone. For comparison, the population of Japan is about 127.5 million, so that’s three copies of Bleach for every five people. Don’t screw this up, Warner.
[Sources: Variety, CBM, ThePlaylist. Image credit: Fashionably Geek.]