Will Morgan Freeman play the Colonel in Akira?

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We learned last week that Zac Efron is in talks to play Kaneda in Albert Hughes' live action adaptation of Akira. We've now discovered that Morgan Freeman may play Neo-Tokyo Neo-New York military man Colonel Shikishima.

Bloody Disgusting is reporting that Freeman is in the running to play the hard-bitten Colonel in charge of the psychokinetic Espers and the experiments on Tetsuo Shima. What do you say, io9ers — could you see Freeman playing this guy? He can certainly pull off the gravitas for the role.