), still under the guidance of Leonardo Dicaprio's Appian Way production house. Dicaprio himself was once thought to be in contention to star, then there was Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Neither of those panned out. Then it was revealed that this wouldn't be a traditional Hughes Brothers collaboration, with Albert handling the directing duties solo, and working off newly assigned screenwriter Albert Torres' script. In June we found out that the plan was to have the ultra violent, densely plotted sci-fi film be rated PG-13. A monumental mistake, in my opinion, and one that I've already whined about enough.
Now the latest rumor to come down the pipeline, courtesy of our friends at Slashfilm, is that Zac Efron has been offered the lead role, likely that of Shintaro Kaneda, who leads his gang atop his awesome custom motorcycle. I hate to admit it, but Efron has grown on me a little bit as an actor, and I can see him slipping into the Kaneda role very easily. One of Kaneda's main attributes is his infectious self confidence. It's his bravery and leadership that reenforces Tatsuo's(the film's eventual antagonist) inferiority complex. These are all things Efron has been able to project in pretty much every film he's been in.
