WhatIsTheMatrix
With the success of events like Anime Expo, of course Hollywood is going to look at anime and manga as potential source material. Admittedly their record with anime influenced and anime based movies has been sketchy so far: for every The Matrix, you have a DragonBall: Evolution and a Speed Racer. (We'd mention Priest, although we're kind of biased on that score...)
ADVEvangelionConceptArt
Anyway, there is also a great deal of wreckage in Hollywood, as seemingly charmed anime/manga related projects bite the dust. Evangelion? Pacific Rim made an American live-action version of that redundant, if the fight between Gainax, Khara, and the remains of AD Vision didn't doom the project. Gunm/Battle Angel Alita? Waiting for James Cameron to finish the Avatar movies. Robotech? Macross? In "development Hell."
MargotRobbie
However, they're going back to the well again. Ghost In The Shell, Death Note, Space Battleship Yamato aka Star Blazers, and even the epoch-making classic Akira is still on the agenda at studios like Dreamworks SKG and Warner Bros. And no less a director than Gus Van Sant is set to direct the Death Note US live action version.
As far as Akira goes, however, we hope that they take a very good look at the crowd-funded fan "trailer" Akira short, and hire everyone involved.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1GO-93Nt3c
PS: our former colleague and always friend Dan Casey just weighed in on this very subject at Nerdist...very interesting thoughts on the subject! Check it out!
