... can't believe there are producers snorted up enough to greenlit projects like this.

Don't get me wrong, I can definitely see how the anime-movie can be improved upon, but not with a live-action movie and with a western cast, set in the USA.

Just hire a top-quality CGI team and do the whole thing in gorgeous CGI that stays true to the original manga in each and every way. THAT would result in a brilliant movie (and probably a trilogy, because of the epic scope of it all...)

Normally I try to hold onto any judgements until I see things from the movie but everything about this movie has bad written all over it.

1) You can't take a Japanese story and cast it with American characters. Garret does not look Japanese so why would his name be "Shôtarô Kaneda"? They'll likely have to change all the names.
2) Akira takes place in NEO Tokyo...they want the setting to be in "NEO New York"
3) The story and backdrop of Akira was inspired heavily by post WWII Japan and the Hiroshima bomb so I just can't see how they're going to pull that off without completely changing mythology.

There's no way I can't be overly critical of this project.