After being poked and prodded through the dusty halls of development by any number of screenwriters, it would appear that the seemingly inevitable live action version of Akira is finally getting ready to step in front of the camera in August thanks to a recent draft of the script by **Harry Potter **veteran Steve Kloves.And now, according to Deadline, it’s in such good shape that Warner Bros. is now sending it out to a batch of actors to try to lock in the leads, with Andrew Garfield, Robert Pattinson and James McAvoy all said to feature on the studio’s wish list.
Of course, most of the people that Warners is after won’t exactly be a surprise. Like those names above, they’re all known quantities that the studio thinks could get bums in seats for a film.
Pattinson, Garfield and McAvoy are all apparently under consideration for choice role Tetsuo, while Tron Legacy’s Garrett Hedlund, X-Men: First Class’ Michael Fassbender, Star Trek’s Chris Pine, The Social Network’s Justin Timberlake and the recently-not-so-retired Joaquin Phoenix are being sent scripts flagging up the role of fellow protagonist Kaneda (a name that, thanks to the anime version, we can only ever pronounce by screaming it aloud when talking about it.)
**Book of Eli **co-director Albert Hughes is apparently also loves the new draft, which will attempt to cram Katsuhiro Otomo’s massive manga into two films that will tackle three books each.
While Deadline believes the two roles will be filled by one of the actors from each list, we’ll keep waiting to see whether an unexpected name crops up…