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"Book of Eli director Albert Hughes has abandoned Warner Brothers&amp;#039; production of Akira. His decision is down to &amp;quot;creative differences&amp;quot; with the studio, according to Deadline. Warner has had difficulties picking leads for the film, which has undergone a rewrite setting it in &amp;quot;New Manhattan&amp;quot;. Plans to cast two young actors for the roles of Tetsuo and Kaneda from a list including Michael Fassbender, Robert Pattinson and Andrew Garfield were then discarded in favour of an established lead. Hughes&amp;#039; departure follows that of Keanu Reeves, who was reportedly locked in to play Kaneda after the studio changed strategy. A spokesperson for Warner Brothers also denied press speculation that the film was in trouble, saying that the project had not been officially greenlit and was &amp;quot;still very much in the development stage&amp;quot;. According to the site, the hunt may be back on for a younger cast for the adaptation of the 1988 cyberpunk comic. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/news/a321771/book-of-eli-director-departs-akira/>