Having been offered the significant role of The Colonel in the live-action version of Katsuhiro Otomo’s cult manga hit AKIRA, Gary Oldman appears to have turned down the role. It is now rumoured Warner Bros. have offered THE LAST SAMURAI and INCEPTION’s Ken Watanabe the chance to step in. UNKNOWN director Jaume Collet-Serra is helming the project with TRON: LEGACY star Garrett Hedlund and TWILIGHT’s Kristen Stewart attached to play the leads of Kaneda and Kai.
Helena Bonham-Carter has also been offered a role in the futuristic science-fiction epic that is expected to move its original set location of Neo-Tokyo to ‘New Manhattan’.
The original comic-book source materiel and animated classic told the story of Kanada and his attempts to stop his now psychotic super-human friend Tetsuo, after he becomes involved a secret government experiment dubbed AKIRA.
Source: Twitch
