Last month it was reported that the feared live-action American remake of beloved Japanese manga and animated film Akira had been officially greenlighted, and that Tron: Legacy star Garrett Hedlund was one of Warner Brothers top choices to star in the movie.

Now it appears that Hedlund has landed the job. According to sources—first reported by Twitch, later confirmed by Variety—that Hedlund has been offered the role, and that the two parties are now in negotiations to work out the dirty details.

Back in May fans of the hit Japanese manga and animated feature film Akira were filled with joy at the news that the rumored Keanu Reeves would not be starring in the planned American remake and that director Albert Hughes had left the project, leading many to think the movie would never happen.

That joy didn’t last long, however. It was announced just a couple of months later that Warner Brothers had chipped down the budget of the remake from over $100 million down to $90 million, and that they had hired Unknown and Orphan director Jaume Collet-Serra to replace Hughes. Now comes word that the studio has officially given the greenlight to a live–action American Akira remake, so this bad boy is happening for real.

Take a moment to grieve.

The digital rental deal of the day over at Amazon today is Disney’s Tron: Legacy, which is available for rental for only $.99. The film stars Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde, Garrett Hedlund, Michael Sheen, and Bruce Boxleitner.

This deal is valid only for today, Thursday, July 14, 2011, until midnight PST. Once you activate the rental through the Amazon Instant Video service, you’ll have access to the movie for 48 hours. (There is no option at this time to purchase this digital version through Amazon Instant Video.)

If you’d like to purchase a physical copy of the movie, it’s also available as a 5-Disc Blu-ray (contains 3D & standard blu-ray, DVD & digital copy, plus the original Tron film), 4-Disc Blu-ray (contains 3D & standard blu-ray, DVD & digital copy), 2-Disc Blu-ray (standard blu-ray, DVD), and DVD (1-disc DVD).

Tron: Legacy/Tron: The Original Classic
5-Disc Blu-ray | 4-Disc Blu-ray | 2-Disc Blu-ray | DVD
Directed by Joseph Kosinski/Steven Lisberger
Starring Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde, Garrett Hedlund, Bruce Boxleitner
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Released date: April 5, 2011

If you want to see my opinion of Tron: Legacy, go ahead and check out my original review of the film’s theatrical release. My opinion of the movie hasn’t really changed since I originally wrote the review. To sum up, it is a fun and visually amazing movie, but it is not as good as it could have been. However, now I’m here to talk about the Blu-ray version of Tron: Legacy, in all its five discs of glory, and I can’t recommend it enough because it looks great at home, and because it includes the Blu-ray version of Tron: The Original Classic. The transfer on both of the Blu-rays look amazing, and if you’ve got a high end system, this is going to be a disc that will show it off. The movie is shown in its IMAX aspect ratio, so it doesn’t quite fill a standard screen, but that doesn’t take anything away. I was blown away by how great Tron: Legacy looked at home. Unfortunately, I am not set up for home 3D yet, so I can’t speak to what that looks like, but I have to assume that this is going to be a film that takes full advantage of that technology.

TRON: Legacy
Directed by Joseph Kosinski
Starring Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde
Rated PG
Walt Disney Pictures
Release date: December 17, 2010

There are plenty of movies that I can point to as being part of my geek DNA, and the original TRON is one of those movies. I have very strong memories of watching the movie as a kid and it helped to make me the sci-fi fan that I am today. So I have been excited by the prospect of TRON: Legacy since the first announcement was made that it was coming. Now, after almost 30 years since the first film, we have the sequel. Does it live up to the original?

In the original TRON, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) was sent into the world inside the computers, and saved that world from the Master Control Program. TRON: Legacy picks up twenty years later. Kevin Flynn has disappeared, leaving his son Sam (Garret Hedlund), an orphan, desperately holding out hope that his father is still alive. Of course, Sam also gets sent into the computer world, just as his father did before him, and he must track down his father and save the world.