On Thursday, we reported that actor Garrett Hedlund is in talks to star as Kaneda in Akira. Since that role seems to be locked up, Warner Bros. is now focusing on casting Kaneda's brother, Tetsuo, with Ezra Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin) and Alden Ehrenreich (Tetro) reading for the part.

Tetsuo is a young man who develops telekinetic abilities, which the government wants to harvest for their own means. The story follows Kaneda, who tries to rescue his brother from these experiments. We also reported last month that Gary Oldman and Helena Bonham Carter were offered the roles of The Colonel and Lady Miayko, although it is not known if they have accepted the offers.

Jaume Collet-Serra is directing Akira from a screenplay by Albert Torres and Steve Kloves. It isn't known when production may start on Akira.