One of the many problems that plagued Warner Brothers' American remake of Akira, is that they were seriously struggling to find an A-list superstar to be the face of it. The former director, Albert Hughes, wanted to cast whoever he felt was best, while the studio needed a bigger name to justify the huge cost of putting the film together. That was before Hughes left the project, replaced by Jaume Collet-Serra(Orphan), and the Steve Kloves scripted production got a massive slash in budget. That led to Garrett Hedlund(Tron: Legacy) taking on the lead role of Kaneda, but Warner Brothers still needs a household name. Like maybe...Kristen Stewart? People know her, right?
Twitch notes that an offer has been made to Stewart in hopes that she'll play Kei, Kaneda's love interest and a key figure in his fight against the out of control Tetsuo. Keira Knightley has also been circling a role in the film, which I've been thinking is probably the same one. This is just an offer, so Stewart may turn it down yet. Even though Twilight is wrapping up, she's already jumped into another franchise with Snow White and the Huntsman. At one point she had expressed a desire to tackle smaller projects, so she may not want the strain on her time. We'll just have to wait and see.
But y'know, this movie has had a crapload of offers sent out to people already. Most have wound up at the bottom of garbage cans, but Gary Oldman and Helena Bonham Carter are still in contention. Over the weekend, Alden Ehrenreich and Ezra Miller were said to be testing for the Tetsuo role, so we should be hearing more on that front in the coming days.
