Back when the live-action remake of Akira was a budget-busting $230 million with the Hughes brothers sharing the director’s chair, Warner Bros. was desperate for a giant movie star to topline the project, and yet Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, and Ryan Gosling all passed. A lot has changed in just six months, though: The project has been revised under new director Jaume Collet-Serra to cost considerably less, and the studio is now in negotiations with Tron: Legacy’s Garrett Hedlund to star as the lead character, Kaneda. Hedlund isn’t nearly as famous as the other actors WB was courting, but he did ride a futuristic bike in someone else’s sci-fi tentpole movie, and far be it for them to stand in the way of his apparently habit-forming new hobby. [Showblitz/Variety]
