Keanu Skips Out On Akira Remake

Negotiations were underway and said to "have been going well".

Now, JoBlo.com reports that that Keanu Reeves has passed on playing the role of motorcycle gang leader Kaneda in the Akira remake.

And in fact late last week the studio shut down the pre-viz department, letting go of most of the staff that was working on the film. They stress however that neither event is connected and the studio is still actively looking for a lead.
 
A spox for Warner Bros. tells the site "Production on ‘Akira’ has not halted or been shut down, as the film has not yet been greenlit and is still very much in the development stage. The exploratory process is crucial to a project of this magnitude, and we will continue to sculpt our approach to making the best possible film."

Concern over the film mostly revolves around the budget which was previously reported at around $230 million, leading to talk that Warners is hoping to co-produce the film with another major studio.

Right now though, there's no guarantee either way if the film will move ahead or not -the stopping of pre-viz during development has happened before on films which ended up getting made.

The remake has had its share of troubles since the beginning

Brad Pitt & Ryan Gosling were also offered the film and passed

James Franco, Andrew Garfield, Robert Pattinson Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Fassbender, Zac Efron Justin Timberlake Chris Pine Garrett Hedlund, and Joaquin Phoenix were all candidates for either Kaneda or the role of best friend Tetsuo along the way 

The new version moves the action from Neo-Tokyo to New Manhattan and follows Kaneda's attempts to save Tetsuo from a medical experiment that threatens to unleash destructive powers.

Albert Hughes (The Book of Eli) would call action. Steve Kloves (The Amazing Spider-Man) did a re-write

Andrew Lazar, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson Killoran are producing--should the film be ready to go again

I'm not holding my breath...