Film Sketchr, recently came across concept art that was created by
Howard Lau, for Jaume Collet-Serra incarnation of
Akira. Over the years, Warner Bros. has made several attempts at bringing a live-action remake of the classic anime film to the silver screen, but have come up empty each time. The closest they came was 2011-2012, with Jaume Collet-Serra set to direct and Garrett Hedlund set to play the lead, Kaneda. Budget concerns eventually shutdown production, even though the director made drastic cuts to make it more appealing to WB. The cast was rumored to have Kristen Stewart as the female lead (Ky), Ken Watanabe as The Colonel, Helena Bonham Carter as Lady Miyako, and Michael Pitt ("Boardwalk Empire") and Dane DeHaan ("The Amazing Spider-Man 2") were in the mix for Tetsuo. You can read a description of the plot below the Masaru images.
As for the images below, for those of you that don't know or your memory has gotten fuzzy, Masaru is part of The Espers (aka the "Numbers").
The Espers came together when Takashi, Masaru, and Kiyoko developed psychic powers and were taken to the Nursery with the original intention to develop their potential for political purposes. They met and befriended each other and Akira, but were left behind under the care of Colonel Shikishima and the scientists when Akira transcended to a godlike existence and destroyed the original Tokyo in the process. To prevent a future psychic explosion, the Espers were fed drugs to inhibit their developing powers, with the side effects of suffering physical impairments - Kiyoko eventually became bedridden and Masaru was afflicted with polio. The drugs also inhibited their physical growth but they aged along with everyone else, appearing in the early 40's. - akira.wikia
Kaneda is a bar owner in Neo-Manhattan who is stunned when his brother, Tetsuo, is abducted by government agents led by The Colonel.
Desperate to get his brother back, Kaneda agrees to join with Ky Reed and her underground movement who are intent on revealing to the world what truly happened to New York City thirty years ago when it was destroyed. Kaneda believes their theories to be ludicrous but after finding his brother again, is shocked when he displays telekinetic powers.
Ky believes Tetsuo is headed to release a young boy, Akira, who has taken control of Tetsuo’s mind. Kaneda clashes with The Colonel’s troops on his way to stop Tetsuo from releasing Akira but arrives too late. Akira soon emerges from his prison courtesy of Tetsuo as Kaneda races in to save his brother before Akira once again destroys Manhattan island, as he did thirty years ago.
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