Undeterred by their failure to get their remake of AKIRA up on the big-screen, Warner Bros. are now looking at another anime property to screw up adapt, with Variety reporting that the studio have acquired the rights to BLEACH. 

A runaway success in its native Japan, the Manga series started in 2001 and has run for a staggering 51 volumes. It made the leap to anime series in 2004, and garnered similar success, with video games, trading cards, novels, branded sanitary towels (probably), soundtracks and musicals being span off of it.

The story centres around Ichigo Kurosaki, a fifteen year old lad who inherits the ancient power of a Soul Reaper and is tasked with projecting his fellow humans from evil spirits, ‘The Hollows’, and guiding nice ones, ‘Wholes’, on their way. 

Overseeing the live-action adaptation is Peter Segal (of Drew Barrymore amnesiac/rape comedy 50 FIRST DATES fame) in a producing role, while WRATH OF THE TITANS writer Dan Mazeau handles the script duties. Not the most glowing of starts, we’ll be honest.

Given all the crazy being bandied about when Warner Bros. was still developing AKIRA, expect the same amount of criticism to be leveled at them here. There’s little to no way the studio are planning to honour the source’s Japanese routes, so if you’re a fan and adverse to news that Keanu Reeves is in negotiations to play Ichigo, we suggest you stay away from the internet for the next two years.

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