The Hollywood Reporter's leaked news that names are beginning to surface for the casting of the live-action adaptation of Akira currently being set up at Warner Brothers: Tron Legacy's Garrett Hedlund as the lead, Gary Oldman and Helena Bonham Carter in supporting roles, and now Keira Knightley as well.
Over at Crunchyroll's news section, speculation is flying about who is being cast as whom. Hedlund would most likely be Kaneda, the biker-gang leader whose runtish buddy Tetsuo becomes a superhuman creature with enough psionic power to devastate the world. Oldman might be cast as the Colonel, a military leader attempting a coup to seize power when Tetsuo runs amuck; and Bonham Carter could end up with the role of Lady Miyako, a spiritual leader who proselytizes for the return of "Akira," Tetsuo's predecessor. And Knightley could be Kei, the female resistance fighter with whom Kaneda becomes involved (not very successfully at first).
I'm personally not thrilled with Hedlund; he was amiable enough in Tron Legacy but it took the presence of Jeff Bridges (in multiple roles, no less) to make his presence palatable. The rest of the prospective cast, though, has turned my head. Oldman in particular may be worth showing up for: he's almost never been bad, even in movies that didn't make full use of his talent (Lost in Space, anyone?), and his current turn as spymaster George Smiley in the new movie version of John le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is apparently drawing good word.
I'm still not sold on the project -- and haven't been since the idea was originally floated -- but at least some of the names in the cast have kept me from bolting completely. Let's see where this goes. If it ends up on our list of best live-action anime adaptations I will be just as surprised as most of you.
Image: Akira. Image courtesy Pricegrabber.
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