Shortlist of Actors Wanted for Akira Adaptation Includes Robert Pattinson and Justin Timberlake

According to Deadline, the script for Warner Bros. live action adaptation of the influential manga series and anime Akira is finished, shooting is set to start in August, and the company is in the process of casting the two main characters: Kaneda and Tetsuo. Deadline even knows who the movie is being shopped out to, and it includes the cream of the crop of hunky guys with appeal to young teenage girls, names like Andrew Garfield, Robert Pattinson, and Justin Timberlake.

…Although implying that Justin Timberlake is a teen heartthrob might be showing my age and mainstream pop culture ignorance.

Apparently, Garrett Hedlund (That Tron guy), Michael Fassbender (that Inglorius Basterds guy), Chris Pine (that Captain Kirk guy), Justin Timberlake and Joaquin Phoenix have all been offered a chance at playing Shotaro Kaneda; while Robert Pattinson (that vampire guy), Andrew Garfield (that Spider-Man guy) and James McAvoy (that will-play-Professor-X or has-played-Mr.-Tumnus guy) have all been offered a chance at playing Tetsuo Shima.

Honestly? We look forward to seeing some of Hollywood’s up and coming pretty boys get made into Tetsuo. The course of Akira is not… kind to Tetsuo. And we’d be toooootally interested in seeing Michael Fassbender take a stab at Kaneda, who we all know spends approximately 30% of Akira screaming “Tetsuooooooooo” at the top of his lungs and 20% of it riding a totally rad motorcycle.

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Susana Polo

Susana Polo thought she'd get her Creative Writing degree from Oberlin, work a crap job, and fake it until she made it into comics. Instead she stumbled into a great job: founding and running this very website (she's Editor at Large now, very fancy). She's spoken at events like Geek Girl Con, New York Comic Con, and Comic Book City Con, wants to get a Batwoman tattoo and write a graphic novel, and one of her canine teeth is in backwards.

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