KANEDAAAA!!!!!!
Seriously, where the f*ck is that kid? We’d really like to get this whole live-action AKIRA thing moving…or not. Maybe Kaneda knows that without the right director and right cast, shit gets bad for this real quick.
Why am I even talking about this? Because as I was reporting about Mila Kunis getting the role in OZ, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL, I learned that she was up for a role in AKIRA.
Here’s what Vulture shared on the subject:
“Still, you can’t blame the Hughes Bros. for a lack of trying to land the star of Black Swan. We’re told by knowledgeable insiders that director Albert Hughes had been pleading with Warner Bros. senior management to let him cast the best possible actors, regardless of their worldwide profiles — or lack of them. But Akira is such an expensive movie, the studio is insisting on a massive star to anchor the film. So much so that earlier in the week, Warner Bros. president Jeff Robinov phoned up Brad Pitt himself and offered him the lead role of Kaneda. Because the studio didn’t allow Hughes to cast whomever he wanted to in the lead role, we’re told Robinov relented and allowed Hughes to make the offer to Kunis to play Kei, the gorgeous young revolutionary with whom Kaneda becomes enamored on his quest to find his disappeared best friend.”
“But when Pitt passed on Akira two days ago, it threw the immediate future of the Hughes’ project into disarray. Because it’s not yet clear which Big Movie Star would be both right for the Kaneda part and available to play it, just when Akira might fire up production remains unclear. And in that state of uncertainty, we hear Kunis is committing to starring in Oz instead: Shooting is set to begin this July at the Walt Disney Studios.”
Um…isn’t Pitt a little older for Kaneda anyway? Kaneda is a teenager. It might be a bit hard for Pitt to pass off for that nowadays. I really hoped that Joseph Gordon Levitt would be Tetsuo. That was such a good match. Ben Foster would be good as well, just sayin’. Right now it just looks like (and has always looked like) this project is not a good idea. Unless, like I said, all the pieces come together.
Do you think they should still keep on? I’m sure they will, but I just–pass.
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