Warner Brothers has shut down Akira's production offices in Vancouver over "casting and budgetary issues", reports If you haven't been following our constant kvetching about the live-action Akira movie, here's a quick summary of what happened, which we recommend reading while listening to this:The Hughes Brothers were originally attached to adapt books one through six as two movies with a budget of $230 million.

Warner Brothers and Jaume Collet-Serra are still casting the Americanized, $90 million adaptation of Akira, and we have a synopsis of the plot which went out with a casting call.

Last month Warner and director Jaume Collet-Serra were pursuing Gary Oldman to be best friends with because he's awesome to play The Colonel in Akira.

The casting of the Warner Brothers and Jaume Collet-Serra $90 million adaptation of Akira is rolling along, with Garret Hedlund likely playing Kaneda, Gary Oldman and Helena Bonham Carter playing Colonel Shikishima and Lady Miyako, and Kristen Stewart offered the role of Kei, who is being renamed "Ky" because Americans no pronounce Japanese smart, hurr durr derp.

Casting of the Warner Brothers and Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan, Unknown) adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira is underway, and we're getting so excited about this recent development that we can't stop biting our lips.

It was only last week we learned TRON: Legacy star (it seems odd typing "star" for people I just heard about) Garret Hedlund was who Warner Brothers and director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan, Unknown) want to play Kaneda in the just-greenlit Akira.

"TETSUOOOO.

A few days ago we declared the bastardized Akira remake to be thankfully dead.