After reporting that the live action film adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira cyberpunk manga and anime has been green-lit, Variety magazine reports that Tron Legacy's Garrett Hedlund will be one of the leads.
Garett Hedlund will play one of the two male leads. Whether it's Kaneda or Tetsuo isn't confirmed. Although both the movie studio Warner Bros. and the director it hired, Jaume Collett-Serra (Unknown, Orphan, House of Wax), are interested in signing Hedlund, they could not make an offer to the actor until the film was green-lit.
Filming of Akira live action move adaptation is said to start later February or early March. The movie is set in New Manhattan, the leader of a biker gang who must save his friend, discovered with potentially destructive psychokinetic abilities, from government medical experiments.
via Anime News Network
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Wasn't that role supposed to go to Zac Efron
That was an old rumor and thank god it was just a rumor I fo one would have not have gone to see it if Zac Efron was staring, as much as I loved this guy in Tron: Legacy and this may sound a lil racist but I still hope the lead ends up going to some one who at least looks asian.
While my hopes are still not at all close to being high, I do have to say that moving the setting to america like they did is a good move if they are going to 'white wash' the cast like they normally do.
My only question: how close to the messages and ideas behind the source material are they going to get. Adaptions are always different in someway, but if they can still capture the spirit of the material that inspired them to make this, then maybe, just maybe this will turn out good.
Like I said though, given Hollywood's track record so far, I don't have much hope...