By Well, this is good news for those who are against the white-washing of Akira. JoBlo got the official word today that Keanu Reeves will not be playing Kenada in Warner Bros.’ big budget adaptation of the influential manga. This is after Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, and James Franco have all turned the project down. What’s up with that? I hope that they all realized how horrible of a decision adapting the manga (again) would be.
It actually looks like it, though. Warner Bros. just shut down the pre-visualization department on the film. When pressed for comment, WB said that production had not been halted or stopped altogether, and that the movie hasn’t even been greenlit yet. While I’m sure this leaves many talented people without a job, this is refreshing news after hearing that the movie would be set in New York and would consist of all white actors. Maybe Warners can find an original project to work on, instead of remaking movies that shouldn’t be remade in the first place. But that’d be taking a risk, and we all know how studios feel about risks these days.
[via JoBlo]