Live Action Movie: Akira

[Sapphire]

Casting now underway for Leonardo DiCaprio produced 'Akira' Starring Kristen Stewart:

http://www.acting-auditions.org/2011...-dicaprio.html

[Animeniax]

Dammit as soon as I saw the thread title I thought, "what white actors will be cast in this movie?" So will this movie take place in Neo New York or Neo L.A.?

Btw, Akira will be played by the guy who played Tron in the terrible Tron II movie.

[darkshadow]

Bruce boxleitner is gonna play akira? Or do you mean anis cheurfa?

[Carnage]

I cant wait to see how bad this movie will be.

[Sapphire]

The Tron guy was good, and it has the Japanese Inception guy.

[rockmanj]

I have the same feelings as this guy: http://www.angryzenmaster.com/2011/1...g-in-february/. They might as well call this movie Steve. The Akira story has always seemed uniquely Japanese to me, and whitewashing the film just adds insult to injury. More of that "American audiences only want to see white people star in movies" crap. I hope it flops.

[Sapphire]

Wouldn't it be weird to set it in Japan with mostly American actors?

[rockmanj]

Wouldn't it be weird to set it in Japan with mostly American actors?

I am sure they could find enough Asian (japanese) or Asian-American actors if they really tried. It just doesn't seem right. I think to even approach the sort of impact that the original stories had, they would have to do some bold 9/11 type thing. I don't know, whatever this is, it is not Akira to me.

And @Ani- it will be set in "Neo Manhattan" *GROAN

[Animeniax]

I hear they're using the same Japanese names in the movie, but with white actors.

Oh, and here are some changes to the story:
if-this-leaked-script-is-to-be-believed-even-naming-it-steve-wont-save-akira/

[rockmanj]

Yes, that is correct. You more I hear about it, the more I makes me grind my teeth.

[Animeniax]

I'm going to watch Akira on my big screen TV this weekend in homage to the original movie.

[Y]

I don't have any opposition, in principle, to making an Americanized Akria. A lot of the themes of postindustrial collapse can be reflected in the modern day American culture. That being said, I still need to see footage before I have any faith in this project either existing or turning out to be a quality film.

[Shadow Skill]

So this is essentially Dragon Ball Evolution part 1.5 :P

Ya... it's definately going to be a disaster as large as Dragon Ball Evolution.

SERIOUSLY?!?! Kristen Stewart?!?! Can't they find a real actress?

[rockmanj]

So this is essentially Dragon Ball Evolution part 1.5 :P

Ya... it's definately going to be a disaster as large as Dragon Ball Evolution.

SERIOUSLY?!?! Kristen Stewart?!?! Can't they find a real actress?

I am guessing they want to cash in on her twilight buzz.

[Sapphire]

Wow does it seriously make a difference to you guys if all the actors in this movie are Japanese/Asian?

That mentality is no different from Japan/China/Taiwan flipping out when they hired a Chinese woman for Memoirs of a Geisha, or my old anime club that nearly crucified me for not immediately agreeing to illegally download Avatar rather than see in theatres because 'not enuf aznz'. I've never seen the amount of outrage over not enough 'x' race in a movie than I do with movies adapted from somewhere in Asia.

People really love raging over 'race mixing' of any sort from their own perceived concept of the 'original right race' movies. Nothing is good enough.

I find the weird self-deprecating OMG WESTERN AND WHITE PEOPLE SUCK THIS IS GOING TO BE SHIT UGH WHITEWASHED, UGH AMERICA default mental state a little bit . Weird. Hold out until the trailer guys!

That said, they barely started casting for this movie, so I'll hold out until I see the trailer. Japanese Inception guy and Teen Tron guy in it so maybe it's worth seeing.

I don't have any opposition, in principle, to making an Americanized Akria. A lot of the themes of postindustrial collapse can be reflected in the modern day American culture. That being said, I still need to see footage before I have any faith in this project either existing or turning out to be a quality film.

This.

[shinta|hikari]

Why did they keep the names? Is it not weird how the names are Japanese if the actors are not? They should have just adapted the plot and theme of Akira and renamed it into something else.

[Animeniax]

That's because you're only a casual fan of Asian culture/anime, Sapphire.

Look at it this way, imagine if they remade Roots with white actors, but kept the African names and slavery back story. How would you feel about that mini-series?

[Sapphire]

That's because you're only a casual fan of Asian culture/anime, Sapphire.

Look at it this way, imagine if they remade Roots with white actors, but kept the African names and slavery back story. How would you feel about that mini-series?

I obviously wouldn't care. Or maybe even find it amusing.

lol It's a wonder that we've been talking on this forum for 5 years, and still you stay stupid shit about me all the time.

(Edit: I wouldn't appreciate it if anyone was trying to ridicule Amistad/Roots, though. Slavery is serious so it depends on the hypothetical production in question.)
-

Anime/Japanese L-A productions have a cast of all one race because the people who make the stuff are from a homogeneous society. To take it so literally and say OMG THE PURPOSE OF THE STORY IS THAT THEY'RE ALL ASIAN, THIS IS SIGNIFICANT, YOU NEED ASIAN is a little odd to me. In fact I believe it is only intentionally significant to the story if they purposely emphasize that there are separate races/looks.

If the race of the cast from the Asian TV side were not initially homogenous, and intentionally had various races and certain looks, I would probably pay more attention to the integrity of the looks/race of the actors. But even then, I know you can only go so far. So at that point if they actually kept that sort of heterogeneous integrity, I would see it as a very nice perk, just like the casting in most British TV (see below).

As a side-note, British TV has some of the most racially diverse productions I've ever seen. As long as you're good, you get the part (even if you're BUTT ugly). I quite like that.

[rockmanj]

That's because you're only a casual fan of Asian culture/anime, Sapphire.

Look at it this way, imagine if they remade Roots with white actors, but kept the African names and slavery back story. How would you feel about that mini-series?

Why did they keep the names? Is it not weird how the names are Japanese if the actors are not? They should have just adapted the plot and theme of Akira and renamed it into something else.

That was the analogy I was thinking. And yes, it is ridiculous that they retained the names, yet are casting white people. It is pretty blatant whitewashing, probably because the producers figure that Americans would not flock in droves to see a movie about a bunch of Asian kids (although apparently, they are making everyone adults [ugh]). Maybe it was based on ability, but I don't know...if you saw those The Last Airbender, for the leads the casting call was for "Caucasian people, then everyone else", I don't know what the casting call looked like, so I can't say.


I would also liken this to if someone made a documentary about Eminem starring Morgan Freeman as "Marshall Mathers" and it is set in Toronto (or a Manny Pacquiao movie starring Joseph Gordon-Leavitt).

[Carnage]

Why is this so hard to understand. Yes in THEORY its possible to make a good Akira movie with white actors. But we KNOW its not going to happen. We KNOW hollywood is going spew out a shitty movie. Which is why so many people are buttmad.