Leo DiCaprio: Akira's Kaneda?

Leonardo DiCaprio will reportedly play the lead character Kaneda in the live action feature-film Akira, reports AICN. Former 3rd Rock From the Sun star Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also rumored to play Tetsuo.

Warner Bros. recently announced that it will be taking anime artist Katsuhiro Otomo‘s six-volume cyberpunk serial manga (Japanese word for comics) Akira to the big screen. The film is set in a New Manhattan, a city rebuilt by Japanese money after being destroyed 31 years ago.

If the rumor is true, DiCaprio would not only star in the film, his production company Appian Way, would produce with Andrew Lazar‘s Mad Chance.

The first Akira film is set for a summer 2009 release.