Tim Burton And The Rock Band Sparks Almost Made A Movie Of A Famed Manga Series

Although they had already scored many hits over the years, the rock band Sparks enjoyed a massive visibility increase in 2021 with the release of Edgar Wright's "The Sparks Brothers," a documentary about their decades-long career and prolific output. Brothers Ron and Russell Mael have been performing together under the banner of Sparks since 1972 and have, as of 2025, released 26 original studio albums. Those familiar with the band can tell you about their unabashed quirkiness. Sparks is whimsical, often humorous, and frequently employs puns and jokes in their music. One of their albums is called "Kimono My House." Another is titled "Angst in My Pants." The stern and strange Ron writes the music, while the charming and handsome Russel sings. They're still touring, and both brothers are in their late 70s.

For decades, Sparks possessed filmmaking ambitions and was eager to write a movie musical. They finally got their wish in 2021 with the release of "Annette," a gonzo opera directed by Leos Carax and starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard. The film is about the two lead characters falling in love and having a child, only the child is a marionette puppet. It's a very odd movie, as one might expect, possessed of Sparks' energetic, slightly off-center music and Carax's penchant for reality-bending surrealism. "Annette" won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival and five César Awards (the French Oscars).

Of course, "Annette" was only, by happenstance, the film that Sparks eventually got to make. Back in the late 1980s, the band took a strong interest in an obscure manga series called "Mai, the Psychic Girl," hoping to write the music for a film adaptation. "Mai," which ran from 1985 to 1986, is about a 14-year-old girl with psychic powers who is being pursued by a shadowy cabal of government agents that aims to kidnap her and use her powers for evil ends. Sparks pitched the idea to Carolco Pictures ... and even had Tim Burton briefly floating around the project.

A lot of the story of the making of the "Mai" movie same out in 2009 when Sparks released their audio-only musical "The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman." A concept album and a collaboration with Sverige Radio, "Seduction" recounts tales of what it's like to make it ... or not make it ... in Hollywood. Indeed, a lot of "Seduction" was inspired by the pained six-year period Sparks devoted to the making of "Mai."

The story goes that Ron and Russell Mael discovered and fell in love with "Mai, the Psychic Girl" when it was still in its initial print run. This was the mid-1980s, so mangas were still considered fringe pop culture in the United States. Sparks brought "Mai" to Carolco Pictures, a studio that first saw blockbuster success in 1982 with "First Blood" (which marked Sylvester Stallone's debut in the role of John Rambo). Carolco was eventually worn down over the course of several years before buying the film rights to "Mai," with Sparks attached, in 1991.

The late '80s were also a good time for Burton, who had already exploded on the scene with "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" in 1985, "Beetlejuice" in 1988, and then the ultra-blockbuster "Batman" in 1989. The same year Carolco bought the rights to "Mai," Burton had already finished his own personal project, "Edward Scissorhands," and was wrapping up work on "Batman Returns." Despite (or perhaps because of) Burton's unique cartoon-Goth aesthetic, he had suddenly become one of the most in-demand directors in Hollywood. Burton, it would appear, was also interested in adapting "Mai" to film, as he knew about Sparks and it seemed like an intriguing project — one that Sparks had already started working on, having written multiple songs for it by that point.

According to a 2009 Sunday Times report covering "The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman," however, Burton was at a crossroads in his career. With the success of "Batman" under his belt, Burton had his choice of projects, and several dangled in front of him. Rather than make "Mai," he took an offer from Touchstone Pictures to produce and design the animated film "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (based on his own poem) and direct "Ed Wood," the biopic of Z-grade filmmaker Edward D. Wood Jr. Neither film was a massive hit when they first came out, but both went on to gather a larger audience on the home media market. "Nightmare" is now a brand unto itself at Disney, while "Ed Wood" is beloved by many, having revitalized Wood's own filmography.

"Mai," meanwhile, fell apart. Carolco let the rights expire, so the project began being passed around. In 2000, Variety reported Kirk Wong, the director of "The Big Hit," had become attached to the project, but that iteration similarly fell apart. That same Variety article noted that "Mai" was also briefly in the hands of Francis Ford Coppola, adding that he only developed it a little; there was no serious movement on "Mai" on Coppola's behalf.

Many Sparks fans became interested in the "Mai" project again in 2009 when the band sang about it on "The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman," and there were rumors — just rumors — that Burton might be interested in returning to the project after all. Sadly, no movement has been made on "Mai" since then, and the enterprise appears to be dead in the water. Burton's career continued apace, and Sparks returned to making records at a furious pace. They would eventually get their dream film made with "Annette." Time will tell if they ever have the energy again to make "Mai, the Psychic Girl." Although, in the year 2025, it seems highly unlikely that anyone is interested anymore.