Back in November, Zac Efron was supposedly offered the lead role in the live-action adaptation of Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo’s epic 6-volume graphic novel. This sent the internet up into chaos, because obviously, fans of epic graphic novels aren’t really known to hang out with the High School Musical crowd.
But it looks like that rumor was just a rumor because Deadline reports now that the Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have established a shortlist of actors for the role, and to make the list, you apparently just need to be a mildly successful white dude. Robert Pattinson, Andrew Garfield and James McAvoy are in the running for the role of Tetsuo; Garret Hedlund, Michael Fassbender, Chris Pine, Justin Timberlake and Joaquin Phoenix are all fighting for the role of Kaneda.
The film, adapted with a re-write by Steve Kloves and to-be-directed by Albert Hughes, follows a biker gang member who is turned into a psychopath psionic by a secret military project. Interesting? Yes. But unfortunately, there’s still no confirmation yet on what character Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play in The Dark Knight Rises. Wait — that’s what we were talking about, right?
Source: Deadline
