Warner Bros. has given the go ahead on a live action version of the 1988 anime cult classic Akira, with Jaume Collet-Serra to direct.

The original anime is based in Neo Tokyo, 2019, Shotaro Kaneda (Mitsuo Iwata) leads the Capsules, his bōsōzoku gang, to fight against the Clowns. However, Kaneda's best friend Tetsuo Shima (Nozomu Sasaki) is injured when he almost hits Takashi (Tatsuhiko Nakamura), a small but decrepit psychic boy called an esper. Takashi is captured by armed soldiers and has Tetsuo hospitalized. When Kaneda and his gang are interrogated, he tries to flirt with Kei (Mami Koyama), a member of a dissident underground terrorist group before being released.

The live action remake is eyeing frontrunner Garrett Hedlund (Tron: Legacy) for the lead character, Kaneda.