New Manhattan Instead of Neo-Tokyo?

does this look like Leonardo Dicaprio to you?

the good news: the powers that be over at Warner Brothers have greenlit a two picture deal to make a live-action adaptation of the greatest Manga-Anime Feature combo of all time: japanese comics god/director Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira. for the uninitiated, Akira is a dystopian sci-fi thriller set in a future after a massive catastrophe has destroyed the city, which has been rebuilt into a megatropolis dominated by feuding biker gangs and gestapo-style military police. 

 

oh! did i mention the telekinetic mutant Tetsuo who goes one-on-one with a freakin' military Satellite? yeah well, there's that...

the bad news: for some reason, the WB peeps think it will be a good idea to "americanize" the damn thing, casting Leo Dicaprio as the lead character, the gun-toting semi-badass, fully JAPANESE Kaneda (pictured above)... also, the whole thing will be set in New Manhattan instead of Neo Tokyo, in what the filmmakers pitched as “Blade Runner meets City of God” ... what's wrong with white people in America, that they think they have to americanize Akira? are there all-Japanese remakes of The Color Purple or Shane shooting in Osaka as we speak?

good grief...
(end of rant. we now return you to your regular internet, already in progress...)