The on again/off again nature of the Akira film is in evidence as Warner Bros. has made the decision to greenlight the feature once more. The production, originally planned as a two-part feature by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way production company, has suffered from a lot of bad press since it first came to light, either from being a film that shouldn’t be adapted to calls about casting being whitewashed and so forth. But now it looks like the feature is set to start production in February or March of 2012 with Jaume Collet-Serra still set to direct. The feature was already reduced in budget at that time by $10 million to $90 million, which a lot of studios worked through over the summer with films that were going into various stages of production, with some of them being scuttled outright.
At this point, it looks like Garrett Hedlund is being considered for the lead character of Kaneda. Hedlund was last scene in a big way as the lead in Tron: Legacy.
[Source: Variety]
