The live-action verision of the classic anime ‘Akira’ is dead. The film has been in the hands of Warner Brothers and Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company Appian Way for some time, and Gary Whitta (The Book of Eli) has been working to crack the script. The plan, reportedly, was to craft two films in order to preserve the scope of the massive manga by Katsuhiro Otomo (who co-wrote and directed the anime, as well) with Ruairi Robinson directing. But Robinson is now said to be off the project.

Quite a few changes would have been made to the material; notably, the live-action film would have been set in ‘New Manhattan’, rather than the Neo-Tokyo of the original manga and anime. No cast was ever publicly revealed to be attached. The involvement of Appian Way led many to suspect that DiCaprio would star as the teen biker Kaneda, despite being demonstrably too old for the part, but the actor publicly denied any involvement beyond producing duties. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was rumored to be in mind for Tetsuo, the friend of Kaneda whose psychic powers are awakened, setting of a cataclysmic chain of destructive events in Neo-Tokyo. He also denied any attachment tp the project.

[Source] Bloody Disgusting