First, Keanu Reeves decided not the take a lead role in Warner Brothers’ “Akira,” and now Albert Hughes, one half of the Hughes Brothers producing/directing team, has left the film.  Supposedly his leaving the project was amicable, but the project–collapsing in such a fashion–seems a bit unusual. Then there was Warner’s attempt to get other big name actors, partially to justify the huge costs of the project (estimates to be north of $200 million dollars), as well as to attract investors. I have no idea if this project is going forward, though if it is it will not be in its current form.  I also admire that it appears that Warner Brothers is at least attempting to salvage this project, unlike Universal, which dropped Guillermo del Toro’s film of H.P. Lovecraft’s “At The Mountains Of Madness“.