Akiiiiira! Done as Two Ameriiiican Movies!

Warner Bros. is finally getting serious about making that proposed live-action version of Akira. The studio has partnered up with Legendary Pictures to share the production costs on making not just one but two Akira movies -- and the companies want the first movie out in theaters in the summer of '09.

Here's where it really gets interesting: Leonardo DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way, is one of the two producer entities involved with these Akira films -- and the rumor is that Leo is gonna star in this sucker too.

The unconfirmed part comes from Aint It Cool News. The site tells us that Leo isn't just into producing the picture but in starring in it as well. Who would DiCaprio play? Read on and find out.

Akira was originally based on Katsuhiro Otomo's manga comic from the 1980s and tells the story of two friends in 2030, three decades after the Third World War. Set in Neo Tokyo, Kaneda and Tetuso are members of a bike gang that kind of have a Blade Runner vibe to them. The duo get embroiled in a government secret experiment about powerful psionic children. Otomo's manga took 2,000 pages to tell and was spread out across six volumes. Each of the American Akira movies will take the material from three of the volumes and adapt it into a screenplay.

The first script is already done. It's by Gary Whitta, an old pal of mine from the days when I used to write for Total Movie magazine. Gary's moved into doing movies now and I'm gonna be bugging him shortly to see what info he can spill to us (if he can.) Cross yer fingers.

The WB's Akira sets the action in New Manhattan so I'm guessing that the manga's story has been Americanized.

Now, back to Leo: AICN reports that he wants to play the part of the Tetsuo character from the original Akira. The site also reports that they know who would play the Kaneda character: Joseph Gordon Levitt. You know, the guy that played Tommy on 3rd Rock From the Sun? He's in his 20s now and currently starring in the G.I. Joe movie.

WB also has a director, an Irish commercial and short video director by the name of Ruairi Robinson. He's getting his big American break with this one.