Oh @#$%, They Finally Greenlit the American Akira Movie

?From Variety:

Warner Bros. has greenlit its live-action remake of the anime cult hit
“Akira” for a late February/early March start, sources tell Variety.

In
July, Warners tapped Spanish helmer Jaume Collet-Serra (“Unknown” ) to
direct at a budget of $90 million, which was brought down from an
initial figure of well over $100 million. Where the budget stands now
isn’t clear, and Warner Bros. had no comment on the project.

With a
greenlight in place, studio can begin shopping for the two male leads;
sources tell Variety that “Tron: Legacy” star Garrett Hedlund is
considered a front-runner. Both Warners and Collett-Sera have been keen
on the thesp, but had to wait for a greenlight to make their move.

This… this is not going to end well for anybody. Not Warner Bros., not Garret Hedlund, not the director, and definitely not audiences. The only good thing — the only — is that Hedlund is in his 20s, something former potential leads like Leonardo DiCaprio and Keanu Reeves were not. Of course, they’re still changing an animated ’80s Japanese epic to a live-action ’10s American 90-minute action flick, so casting a 20-something as a teen is probably the closest thing to accuracy we’re going to get in this clusterfuck.