WARNERS, APPIAN FAST-TRACK 'AKIRA'; DICAPRIO, LEVITT TO STAR? (VAR, THR, AICN)

By Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte

Warner Bros. is set to adapt Katsuhiro Otomo's six-volume graphic novel "Akira" into two live-action feature films. The first is being fast tracked for release in summer 2009.

Each feature will be based on three of the books in the series. The story takes place in New Manhattan, a metropolis that was rebuilt after being destroyed 31 years earlier.

Legendary will co-finance with WB. Andrew Lazar's Mad Chance will produce with Appian Way's Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson and Otomo will exec produce the films.

Ain�t It Cool News reports that Joseph Gordon Levitt will play the character called Tetsuo and also says that DiCaprio is set to star as the lead, Kaneda.

Warners, which held the rights several years ago, has recaptured them in a spirited bidding war, says Variety. The studio has now closed a seven-figure rights acquisition deal with manga publisher Kodansha and has set Ruairi Robinson to direct a script by Gary Whitta.

Robinson, an Irish filmmaker, received an animated short Oscar nomination in 2001 for a sci-fi comedy called "Fifty Percent Grey." �Akira� will mark his feature debut.

The graphic novel was first adapted for the big screen in 1988 as a popular animated film which Otomo directed and was, says The Hollywood Reporter, a milestone movie in anime and even animation circles helping to lead the way for anime making inroads into Western pop culture in the 1990s.