There have been some concerns of AKIRA fans that a live-action adaptation may never make it to the big screen, but it looks like the project is still moving forward and looking to start production this August!
According to Deadline, director Albert Hughes (The Book of Eli) has received a freshly rewritten script from Steve Kloves (Harry Potter films) and this script has been sent out to a short-list of actors the studio wants in the lead roles.
The story takes place in the rebuilt New Manhattan where a leader of a biker gang saves his friend from a medical experiment. There are two major roles, and I’m told that for Tetsuo, Robert Pattinson, Andrew Garfield and James McAvoy have been given the new script. For the role of Kaneda, the script has been given to Garrett Hedlund, Michael Fassbender, Chris Pine, Justin Timberlake and Joaquin Phoenix. The two leads are expected to come from that group of actors.
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I am not a huge fan of anime/manga/whatever it’s technically called, but I do recognize the fan base this particular title has and the importance it seems to have in the genre. I have only seen AKIRA once, and that was about ten years ago – I didn’t much care for it. Perhaps a re-watching is in order as I just watched the Cowboy Bebop movie last night and quite enjoyed it. I suppose my point is, I don’t really have strong feelings one way or another about this list of actors. To me, it seems to be a pretty talented group, but I’m not close enough to the source material to make a strong statement one way or the other.
So, all of you Big Shiny Robot readers who are fans of AKIRA, I’m leaving it up to you! Sound off in the comments below and share your thoughts on what you think of this list of actors the studio is looking to tap for Tetsuo and Kaneda!