By With production on the live-action Akira moving ahead, more casting speculation arrives, and lo it doth sparkle. The female lead in the film has been officially offered to Kirsten Stewart. The Twilight star is currently working on the fantasy epic Snow White and the Huntsman, one of the two Snow White movies — the other being Tarsem’s Mirror Mirror — coming out next year. (Sadly, still no adaptation of the Donald Barthelme novel for the foreseeable future.)
If she accepts, Stewart would play the American version of Kei, a member of a government resistance movement and eventual love interest of male lead Kaneda. No word yet on the American names for either of these characters. My bets are on Nanook and Helga.
Since the the $90 million film was greenlit last month, the casting news has come pretty regularly. At the beginning of November, Garret Hedlund was offered the male lead. Prior to that, supporting roles were floated to Gary Oldman and Helena Bonham Carter. Still no takers as of this writing, but a live-action Americanized remake of Akira is not the best bait you could dangle on a hook.
[Via Collider]