Warner Bros Greenlights 'Akira' with Garrett Hedlund a Possibility to Star

Thursday, 20 October 2011 07:59 Written by Jordan DeSaulnier

Comments (1)

Rate this item

(0 votes)

Warner Bros Greenlights 'Akira' with Garrett Hedlund a Possibility to Star

In 2008, Warner Bros snagged up the rights to Katsuhiro Otomo's legendary manga and with it, the right to make a live-action version of his even more well-regarded 1988 anime Akira. The studio envisioned the futuristic dystopian tale, thoroughly rooted in cyberpunk coolness, Japanese post-WWII psychology, and general weirdness, as a big Americanized tentpole action film. In the three years since, however, they've had plenty of trouble getting Akira off the ground. It would seem those troubles have been sorted out, as Akira has reportedly been given the green light under Spanish helmer Jaume Collet-Serra, and both studio and director are already keen on an actor to play one of the leads.

According to Variety, Warners and Collett-Serra are tentatively planning on production start in either February or March of this year. The story has two principal lead characters, Kaneda – the leader of a biker gang which in the anime tore ass around Neo-Tokyo but in the live-action film are relocating to New Manhattan – and the meeker Tetsuo. With the project proceeding, it looks like Garrett Hedlund, who previously starred in TRON: Legacy is a frontrunner to star, with an offer likely to go out soon.

Hedlund was one of a handful of names on a shortlist that emerged earlier. He was listed as being up for the role of Kaneda, and possibilities for Tetsuo on that list included Andrew Garfield and Robert Pattinson. Still, that in no way means either actor will end up involved, as we're talking about a wishlist from half a year ago.

Jaume Collett-Serra, who last directed the Liam Neeson thriller Unknown, came aboard the project in July, after original director Albert Hughes amicably departed in May. When Collett-Serra became involved, word was the the studio was retooling the film to bring its massive $150-$200 million budget down into the neighborhood of $90 million. The new director apparently spent two months hashing out a new budget, but there's no word on what that budget might be.

The old price tag on the project caused Warner Bros to seek out a globally recognizable star to make guarantee a certain profile for Akira, but the likes of Brad Pitt, James Franco, and Keanu Reeves all passed before Hughes and the studio eventually parted ways.

The screenplay had early drafts by Iron Man collaborators Mark Fergus and Hank Ostby, as well as Gary Whitta, who wrote The Book of Eli for directors Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes. In February of this year, though, Warner Bros brought out the big guns, hiring Steve Kloves to polish Akira. Kloves was the screenwriter behind all but one entry in the studio's most successful franchise, Harry Potter, and he recently provided a rewrite for Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man, as well.