Just Jared is reporting that James Franco is in the running to play Kaneda in the live-action version of Akira. The film will be based off of anime artist Katsuhiro Otomo’s six-volume cyberpunk manga and will be set in New Manhattan, where the leader of a biker gang saves his friend from a medical experiment.
Warner Bros. has tapped director Albert Hughes (The Book of Eli) to helm the project, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s company Appian Way will produce.
As someone like myself who would watch James Franco play the phone book, I don't know about this decision since when you make an American live-action version of a Japanese classic, I always imagine someone of Asian descent playing the lead role. But like Native Americans, Asians are all but extinct from the Hollywood lead pool which is why some of their biggest stars like Donnie Yen are making Hong Kong action movies. If they're albe to pull it off and make it as good as the animated original, I'll definitely go see it in a theater. Just don't make it 3D.
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