Is Morgan Freeman turning into colonel Shikishima (from Akira)?

Maybe you've already heard it, but the anime Akira (1988), will be adapted into a liveaction movie! And Morgan Freeman is on the run for the role of colonel Shikishima.
(Do you see any resemblances?)

Allen and Albert Hughes (Menace II Society, from Hell) will be directing the movie. In 2011 they'll start filming in the US.

The story
It's about a boy named Kaneda, who is the leader of a motorgang. Tetsuo is one of the gangmembers, who got arrested one day. Now he is being used for a military experiment, that gives him incredible powers. But he can't control his powers! Now Kaneda is trying to help him control it.