More bad news(or good if you're not a Hughs fan I guess) for Warner's live action Akira adap. Apparently finding a cast is now not their only concern as the film's director has left the production..
Director Albert Hughes is exiting the movie, I’m told. Insiders say that it is an amicable creative differences parting of the ways. Warner Bros will try to put him on another movie right away (Hughes and his brother Allen directed the hit The Book of Eli and WB topper Jeff Robinov is their former agent and is very close with them). Hughes is coming to Hollywood next week to take meetings with his WME reps and look at scripts, hoping to find his next movie at Warner Bros.
The most recent bump in the road for the movie was when Keanu Reeves turned down the role of Kaneda. But things are far from over for the adaptation, apparently WB still intend to fast track the production and are already seeking a replacement for Hughes. Deadline say that the reckon WB will now also go back to their original short list of actors for the lead roles of Kaneda and Tetsuo. That short list looks like this..
Robert Pattinson, Andrew Garfield and James McAvoy were given the script for the role of Tetsuo, and Garrett Hedlund, Michael Fassbender, Chris Pine, Justin Timberlake and Joaquin Phoenix were courted for Kaneda.
I'm torn between hoping it works out for em and hoping it doesn't! But I can't deny that seeing a live action version of this story, even a bastardized one, is a very interesting prospect for me.
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