It seems as though they don't want complete unknowns in the lead roles...
Racebending "Akira"
- Thread starter Admiral Buzzkill
- Start date
And will never have any if that's the attitude they take.
What, the attitude that they want to make money on their film? I hate to break it to ya, but a big budget production like this needs to have more draw than just the sci-fi/anime nerds that will flock to it and hiring A-list celebs helps with that.
Very true, very true. But why even keep the name "Akira"?
Indeed. Then isn't it ironic that its usually those fans who's loyalty to the original material compels them to decry the fact that cast, location, and story (maybe) are all Americanized?
I wasn't here when the Dragon Ball movie came out, but how did people here receive that one?
I'm not surprised that the characters are being converted to white-bread Americans, nor that the setting has been changed to New York City, but neither move inspires much excitement in me as a viewer. Oh well--I wasn't expecting much from this project (assuming it ever actually gets off the ground).
Then why haven't they hired any so far?
Subjectivity aside, you are familiar with all those names listed as potentials. You may not think they're talented, but they put asses in seats and that's exactly what the producers are looking to do.
To be honest, if I had my way, they'd all be Japanese and the movie would be subtitled. But be realistic - that's not going to happen on a production with a high price tag.
Actually some of them I have never heard of.
I wouldn't know if they were talented or not because I don't know who most of them even are.
Mel Gibson did ok at the box office with a subtitled movie.
This reminds me of a discussion on another board where the $150 million R-rated Guillermo del Toro/James Cameron/Tom Cruise horror movie was considered too expensive and risky to make so the studio passed. And one poster actually thought that removing Tom Cruise from the equation would suddenly make the studio want to greenlight a $140 million R-rated horror movie with no name actors in it.
heh, I doubt the Hollywood version of Akira is gonna end up being anything like "weird ass" more like by the numbers/cookie cutter...
"wierd ass" scares away the "normal" crowd.
Don't be disingenuous.
This is an adaptation of a very specific story, set in future Tokyo in 2019, being turned into New York with total recasting to wash all the "asian" out.
Just a little different from one of Jack Kirby's science fiction reimaginings of an ancient god having a dark skin tone, who is not even the title character and has no impact on the story.
More as if Thor was cast as a red guy with black hair, and Asgard was changed to Mt. Olympus, and his hammer talked.
Situation is the /reverse/ of the so-called controversy over Thor's casting; that was stupid white people bitching over one of them other races getting into the burly homo-erotic, blue eyed, blond haired white god club.
This is a story entirely set in and about Japan and Japanese people being whitewashed so as to sell it to the same white folk who would be uncomfortable going to a sci-fi film without any white people in it, that wasn't set in America (or American Outer Space, or the American Future).
Considering it's Jack Kirby's Heimdall, he could have been light blue and it wouldn't make a difference. In fact, Kirby very possibly might have made him blue if it looked cool that week. Seeing a black guy playing the character if it was supposed to be a mythological fantasy film about the "real" ancient world of Asgard would be one thing.
Comic book Asgard's got freakin' spaceships and aliens.
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