Keanu Reeves Negotiating for Lead Role in Akira

[Snotnarok]

Okay I know this falls in a bit of a racist category for some people but, Kanada is Japanese, not a white/cannot act. Let's NOT do this again to another movie, make him Japanese because the original took place in japan, with Japanese characters.

You do understand what an adaptation means, right? Was it shockingly racist when the cast of The Karate Kid got replaced by an african american kid and a cast made up of Chinese people? No? Wow, double standard much?

Was that the same movie? With the same story? No they're trying to take something popular and remake it for culture insensitive Americans who have no interest in watching a Asian guy watashiwa desu serious lines. The sad part is I'm probably right, that there's people who won't watch a movie because it has a actor with a different ethnic background.

The same thing with Dragon Ball, why not just hire an actual Japanese guy who can fight, hell it can easily be a Chinese guy considering the original story was inspired off of Sonson and Jackie Chan. But no they had to have an American actor, and they had to butcher the story and make one of the worst movies in history based of an amazing franchise. It's their story, why are we retelling it? Why not see how they told it for a different perspective vs hollywoods awful idea on a good movie.

It's not an adaptation, it's just a pathetic money grab and a lack of originality like the rest of Hollywood. And this, like Dragon Ball: Evolution will fail on it's ass because of it's lack of heart and lack of imagination and blatant money grabbing tactics.

Also Keanu Reeves can't act to save his life much like the DB:E kid, so whatever hopes of this movie died before it got off the ground.

 

[Axelhander]

I like how people are devasted by this news as though Akira was this amazing piece of revolutionary fiction.

News flash: Akira, while not horrible, is wildly overrated at best. There's very little to "ruin."

This is Hollywood. They can easily fuck up the simplest concept because they are so sure they are more intelligent than any other person on the damn planet, and we just don't recognize their brilliance, the low-brow peons that we are.

As an aspiring screenwriter who has pitched in LA to producers and execs, and who witnesses bad films being made all the time, I wholeheartedly appreciate your cynicism.

All I'm saying is: if a Hollywood Akira is less than optimal, it shouldn't be thought of as too terribly worse than the original material, because the original material isn't as good as its fanbase makes it out to be.

However, the ideal scenario is that a worthwhile screenwriter and director, along with an intelligent producer, get attached to the Hollywood Akira. That would give it a shot of being amazing. And even though I talk about Akira being overrated, I still liked it, and would love it if a Hollywood version blew the original out of the water.

 

[The Youth Counselor]

The sad part is that Keanu is the most Asian actor that has been considered so far.

 

[Souplex]

DUDE!
EXCELLENT!
*Air guitar*
Whoa...

 

[Do4600]

Hollywood really is dying, 80% of movies I've been hearing about are remakes and sequels that obviously are going to suck. Like a prequel to the original planet of the apes...again, also mission impossible 4? Fast and the Furious five?

Sometimes I really wonder just how much capitalism stifles culture because of all art having to go through the process of being green-lighted solely on it's ability to make money and not on it's artistic value or expression.

 

[Ian Caronia]

See, these guys aren't bad at what they do, but I don't think "Kaneda" when I hear their names. Maybe the guy who played Kirk in the 2009 Star Trek movie, I think he'd do pretty nicely at it, but you know what'd be even better? An actual Asian guy playing the extremely Asian character in this extremely Asian movie.

YES. ANd before people start going "BLAH BLAH RACISM BLAH BLAH BLACK AND WHITE ACTORS TOO BLAH" let's just remember that this story takes place in Neo Tokyo
Neo Tokyo
Neo Tokyo

So when it comes time for them to cast the generic black and/or Hispanic friend(s) after all the white actors have been cast and whitewashing of the source material has been sorted out, I hope nobody goes and tries to pull the race card as the legions of Akira fans, and fans of anime in general, begin to point out how f**king stupid it all is.

It was arguable for a black guy to be a Norse god (kinda, still stupid though) since, you know, Norse gods are mythology/religion. Morgan Freeman was God after all, and despite believing God has no race period I think he was really cool (but that's Morgan Freeman for you).
_It is NOT arguable for a Japanese-born and bred character to be played by a white/black/hispanic/other actor. THAT is racist, since there are plenty of, you know, real Japanese (or Asian if you want to widen the roster available which is fine to me too kinda) people to play these roles.
...Roles that are Asian
...Because they are Asian characters
...Because it takes place in Neo TOKYO and not Neo New York!

And, as always: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jafd97yJFOI

 

[godfist88]

Keanu seems too old to play the part. Besides shouldn't they have someone whose actually Japanese to play the role of a Japanese character. That being said let's not let this turn into a repeat of the last air bender.

 

[Nurb]

It's an American adaptation (which means its probably not going to take place Japan), it's not going to be a direct tanslation of the original Japan-based story.

And it's going to suck with white OR asian actors.

 

[Baneat]

I like how people are devasted by this news as though Akira was this amazing piece of revolutionary fiction.

News flash: Akira, while not horrible, is wildly overrated at best. There's very little to "ruin."

This is Hollywood. They can easily fuck up the simplest concept because they are so sure they are more intelligent than any other person on the damn planet, and we just don't recognize their brilliance, the low-brow peons that we are.

As an aspiring screenwriter who has pitched in LA to producers and execs, and who witnesses bad films being made all the time, I wholeheartedly appreciate your cynicism.

All I'm saying is: if a Hollywood Akira is less than optimal, it shouldn't be thought of as too terribly worse than the original material, because the original material isn't as good as its fanbase makes it out to be.

However, the ideal scenario is that a worthwhile screenwriter and director, along with an intelligent producer, get attached to the Hollywood Akira. That would give it a shot of being amazing. And even though I talk about Akira being overrated, I still liked it, and would love it if a Hollywood version blew the original out of the water.

Certainly, that would be interesting. However, I daresay unlikely. Not because the original was that much better, it was indeed over hyped to hell. It was somewhat enjoyable to watch however. Granted damn near impossible to understand due to shortening it into movie length.

I'm just saying that Hollywood seems to be entirely too greedy anymore. It seems pure greed isn't going to get you very far. They should, like most businesses anymore should, focus on bringing forth a quality product that will speak for itself, advertise itself due to it's innate quality, and also due to said quality sell a metric fuckton.

Businesses largely anymore are run by greedy bastards and idiots.

PEOPLE DO NOT LIKE TO FEEL THEY HAVE BEEN CHEATED.

A simple concept that most people selling things don't seem to understand.

It's like having a reasonable amount of capital sucks all logical thoughts out of your freaking head.


QUALITY, QUALITY, QUALITY.

Largely the most important thing in selling ANYTHING.

Yay for Common Sense being dead. I miss him.*Sniff*

You think businesses being owned by greedy people is a new thing? Are you kidding me?

Businesses have always, ALWAYS, been run by greed - thats been their defining feature since the concept was created. Hell, greed and business are so inseperable, its like saying "Ice was better back before it was so cold". Hollywood was absolutely never an exception. And there has always, always been crap that still sold.

Not quite, business operates on a dimension where greed simply does not exist, one in which its sole measure of worth is the profit. Greed is taking far too much of something that is given, however, that's not possible with business, as you can't make too much money since people freely pay you for whatever you're providing.

 

[Plurralbles]

8 years ago I would have supported this.

 

[SpaceMedarotterX]

Okay I know this falls in a bit of a racist category for some people but, Kanada is Japanese, not a white/cannot act. Let's NOT do this again to another movie, make him Japanese because the original took place in japan, with Japanese characters.

You do understand what an adaptation means, right? Was it shockingly racist when the cast of The Karate Kid got replaced by an african american kid and a cast made up of Chinese people? No? Wow, double standard much?

Difference, new Karate Kid? though more correctly called Kung-Fu Kid, was a good movie! It had the same plot elements except in a different scope, a boy taken out of his local enviroment to somewhere he doesn't get along with the new people around him, finds a mentor in an old man with his own issues and fights against an asshole rival.

The difference is it's moving all the way across the world instead of across state, the mentor character is actually responsible for his familys death and thus has a lot more baggage, and the rival in the remake was a giant arrogant prick while originally he was mostly arrogant and dickish because thats how his teacher was.

It's the same damn story with good acting on either side.

This is not Akira, this is no where NEAR Akira. This is not even Akira 'In Name Only' this is an independant film that hunted down Akira, beat it up, and stole it's name while running off screaming "I am Akira!"

This Double Dragon, fucking Super Mario Brothers was more faithful to it's source material than this sounds.

I thought we were getting beyond this point in our lives. This doesn't just sound like a bad Akira adaption, it sounds like a bad movie. And you know what I don't even LIKE Akira! I think it's overrated for people who got gore before they could get it anywhere, same for Ninja Scroll.

You know Black Heimdell and Black Karate Kid? fine, you know what they both played their roles well. Trust me when I say their are plenty of White-made-black characters who are dumb as fucking shit. Most obvious to me is Masao Inaba being turned into a Black Face character in the first translation of Persona 1.

This is just as stupid when we heard about a Full Metal Panic! Movie set in 'A World where Adults no longer exist' and hopefully it will die like that one did

 

[theultimateend]

Uh...I dunno about this. Akira has always been like Harry Potter: a story about dumbass kids.

I liked both (the latter more than the former, I know I know) but I must say that is a pretty solid review.

 

[SpaceMedarotterX]

Okay I know this falls in a bit of a racist category for some people but, Kanada is Japanese, not a white/cannot act. Let's NOT do this again to another movie, make him Japanese because the original took place in japan, with Japanese characters.

You do understand what an adaptation means, right? Was it shockingly racist when the cast of The Karate Kid got replaced by an african american kid and a cast made up of Chinese people? No? Wow, double standard much?

Difference, new Karate Kid? though more correctly called Kung-Fu Kid, was a good movie! It had the same plot elements except in a different scope, a boy taken out of his local enviroment to somewhere he doesn't get along with the new people around him, finds a mentor in an old man with his own issues and fights against an asshole rival.

The difference is it's moving all the way across the world instead of across state, the mentor character is actually responsible for his familys death and thus has a lot more baggage, and the rival in the remake was a giant arrogant prick while originally he was mostly arrogant and dickish because thats how his teacher was.

It's the same damn story with good acting on either side.

This is not Akira, this is no where NEAR Akira. This is not even Akira 'In Name Only' this is an independant film that hunted down Akira, beat it up, and stole it's name while running off screaming "I am Akira!"

Oh great time traveller from the fuuture, please tell us of the coming months ahead. You must, because surely you know the precise future of everything on earth, since you seem to know exactly what this MOVIE THAT HAS NOT EVEN BEEN FUCKING STARTED YET is like to the smallest detail, including knowing that this in fact will not feature a post apocalyptic setting dominated by a large MNC that dabbles in genetic engineering and creates a child with immense psychic powers, the abscence of these features being the things that would make it Akira in name only and NOT, I repeat, NOT, chaning a superficial fucking thing like the characters race.

But I'm rambling. Please, tell us how you managed to travel back in time? I mean, you must have, you're obviously not the kind of person who would say things like this without a factual basis.

Very easily in fact it's called, wait for it, Research! As in, hunting down information. There is a Pre-Script and it's terrible. Fairly certain that if it's stuck with, it will be terrible. The fact that a 46 year old man is being cast in the role of a teenager, means they wont be sticking to close to the source material, EPECIALLY with what the pre-script says.

So tell me ignorant jackass, how did you ignore that several fucking people posted a Pre-Script for the movie? Tell me that it seems more likely the movie will be good than bad, do we have to go over the 'attempts' to Live Action anime? Then again Cockbite the fuck do you care what I think? I happen to think that Blade Runner is one of the dumbest movies of all time and nothing like 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'

So the actors trying to be associated with the movie? Bad, the Pre-Script of the movie? Bad, The fact that their is rarely a property that Hollywood grabs that isn't created wholecloth that doesn't wind up being shit? Damn good indication that it will be shit.

 

[SelectivelyEvil13]

It's better than Robert Patterson. I don't think it will be great, not good -- painful, perhaps -- but it is still better than Robert Patterson.

Why can't Hollywood just make a movie, not call it Akira, do their stupid "never forget!" drill, and call it something like Aki-Daki-Darrr! or whatever, because what's the damn point then?!? I've never seen Akira, but it sounds a helluva lot more interesting than this trite, nonsensical romp through water warmly treaded.


ReCaptcha: fimplicity offecta

No, ReCaptcha, you are spam. That is totally spam. Case dismissed.

 

[CarlsonAndPeeters]

I don't usually get bothered by filmmakers changing the races of characters to fit actors. But this...changing the entire manga--which is set in Japan, where people are Asian--to fit an American audience seems wrong. Just don't adapt the manga if you don't think Americans will like it. We won't like a half-assed re-write, either.

Also, if they ever did get an Asian actor, I'd like to nominate Jimmy Wong (yeah he's Chinese, but who cares? Not Alexandra Wallace...)

Edit: Wow this thread is really scary...too much flame...Jimmy Wong, take it down some more:

Spoiler