It looks like the live-action US adaptation of Akira may have found it’s Kaneda…and it’s that guy from The Pineapple Express and Spider-Man 3.
Yep, JustJared is reporting that James Franco has been offered the role of the plucky blob-fighting biker gang leader, but there’s no confirmation that he’s said yes. Now, there will undoubtedly be people who say that Franco can’t possibly save this film from being a giant let’s-take-something-Japan-loves-and-destroy-it-because-we-can Hollywood mess, but you have to admit that he’s at least slightly better than the previous rumored frontrunner, Zac Efron.
And it really should come as no surprise that Franco might be interested in playing an anime character, considering his long-establised fictional love of Japanese body pillows:
https://www.youtube.com/v/pwrf8loXceA?fs=1&hl=en_US
[JustJared via Firstshowing]