Akira - Live action news from the Big Giant Head!

The news on the live action version of Katsuhiro Ôtomo's 1988 masterpiece Akira,was that Warner Bros. had snapped up the movie rights for Leonardo DiCaprio’s company to produce (and for him to possibly star). Then it was mentioned that Joseph Gordon Levitt (3rd Rock from the Sun, Brick, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra) had nabbed the co-starring role of Tetsuo in the live-action version of the anime. Since then it has all gone quiet, until this snippet of news surfaced:
MTV asked Joseph Gordon Levitt, about Akira the movie:
“That just goes to show what you can believe about what people write about movies. I love the movie ‘Akira.’ I still have yet to read the manga, but that’s really just a rumor. They don’t have a script or anything.”

Akira is a great animated movie and for me and many others it was the gateway into the weird and wonderful world of anime. The manga is well worth picking up and is much bigger and deeper than the movie. Not sure if it needs to be made as a live action movie (Kanye West had a go at it in that Stronger video of his). However, it would be cool to see Kaneda's bike on the big screen. I think Levitt certainly fits the look of Tetsuo but they would need to chuck a load of money at the project to make sure they get the Blade Runner-esque look of it right.

What do you think of the news? Still early days as no script for it yet but do you think it needs to be remade as a live action movie? What did you think of the original anime? What other anime movies out there would suit going the live action route?