The Sphere
General Garbage => Tropical Paradise of Hard Shelled Fruits => Topic started by: Rama on Mar 28, 2011, 11:38:10 AM
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You bet your ass it will be.
http://www.movieline.com/2011/03/since-actors-on-rumored-shortlist-for-akira-remake-are-all-white-how-will-hollywood-americanize-the.php
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I'm becoming more and more against turning any comic or cartoon into a live action movie. Hollywood refuses to get it right.
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What's worse is that when they do once in a blue moon get it right, then it flops. And these movies that get it all wrong do big money. Well some of the times. Last Airbender did bomb didn't it?
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It's... it's almost as if...
But no! Is it even possible?
It's almost as if they're targeting a mostly white audience.
!!!
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There's the trailer.
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There's the trailer.
I was dreading clicking that link. Turns out, that was pretty okay.
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Insurgency plans are already under way (http://www.toplessrobot.com/2011/03/tr_contest_japans_revenge_for_akira.php).
Good thing I don't care for Akira.
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If they want to make a movie loosely based on akira that's fine, but please don't call it akira.
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Exactly.
Change all the names in fact. Instead of Tetsuo and Kaneda, how about something like Billy and Jimmy?
That's the ticket.
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Please, no, not Billy and Jimmy! They already did a Double Dragon movie.
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You know, I never did see that, although I heard it's truly awful.
And Scott Wolf is in it.
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Re: OP article... It's not "colorblind" casting. There's no way anyone's gonna convince me that they didn't specifically target white dudes for those roles. Colorblind casting would've brought in at least one contender that had obvious racial differences. Also, colorblind casting wouldn't have been so goddamn awful. Could they really not even get the ages right?
Oh, and I'll just put this here. Basically Racebending's sound-off on this nonsense: http://www.racebending.com/v4/featured/akira-adaptation-courts-white-actors/
When I first saw this topic, I thought it might've been about Sucker Punch given one review called it "The Last Airbender with bustiers."
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They targeted the people they thought would bring in the most money. End of line.
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1. It's still not "colorblind" casting.
2. It's still racist.
3. Why the eff is my link not clickable? http://www.racebending.com/v4/featured/akira-adaptation-courts-white-actors/
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Nope not racially motivated.
If white people weren't the majority with the most money they would not have chosen white actors which means this is not racism. Racism would be a black director making kaneda black despite the fact that white people are the majority with the most money.
And I don't know what the fuck colorblind casting means anyway.
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It means that you're screwed if you're not black or white. Not that it works out for the former that often, either :P
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And I don't know what the fuck colorblind casting means anyway.
The concept is picking the actor who makes the most sense for the role, regardless of race.
This would, of course, mean hiring Japanese people in this case.
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Why? How do you know the movie even takes place in Japan?
I mean, as dumb as the situation already is, it would be even dumber if all these white dudes were running around in Tokyo as if they were actually Japanese.
Akira is a cool story. Hollywood wants to adapt that story. Hollywood has a hard enough time selling movies full of celebrities we recognize.
Not enough people are going to see some weird sci-fi flick full of Asian unknowns to make it a worthwhile monetary endeavor.
This must compute.
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^
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You know what? Somebody please prove me wrong. Give me your ideal cast list for the Hollywood adaptation of Akira. All actors must be of Asian descent! Look, I even made it easier for you, I could have said Japanese descent, but since even Japanese movies sometimes portray other Asians as Japanese, I think it's fair.
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I think you missed my point. We are in agreement on how Hollywood works. I was explaining what colorblind casting must be, though I'm sure it's never happened in Hollywood. If they put a non-white actor in, it's because they want to seem like they give a shit, or the movie is targeted at a specific audience.
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I wasn't calling you out. I'm saying, people who have a problem with this, tell me how you would fix it. Because I am genuinely interested.
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Ah, well... yeah, I got nothing.
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It's just a property that shouldn't see adaptation. If you have to pigeonhole casting to a certain race to retain authenticity, it shouldn't be made as it will limit the appeal. Whether you want to admit it or not, it's no less true. If you choose to offset this limitation by changing locations, situations, and/or names specifically so a broadened cast can make sense, it shouldn't be made because it will move from adaptation to something more akin to rewriting, repurposing, and revisionism.
The only way I could see this one working is for a Hollywood studio to help plan, fund, and provide resources for a Japanese filmmaker's attempt. Otherwise, I can't see it working.
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That's the problem right there...
Why adapt? Create something original with inspiration from the things that came before. Stupid Hollywood.
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Call it Ground Zero, set it in america let the guy who directs dark knight handle it and I'll go see it.
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Here's the thing. Most people don't know, or give a fuck, about Akira. If they go and see this movie, they might actually enjoy it for what it is.
Kind of like what I did with Constantine before ever reading a single issue of Hellblazer.
Of course now that I'm familiar with Hellblazer, I know that Constantine is an unmitigated piece of shit, instead of just another mediocre Keanu flick.
But I don't think we have to worry about the American moviegoing masses educating themselves of the lore of Akira anytime soon.
I mean, you could take this even further down the line, where people are saying, "Man, Akira the anime is garbage! The manga is where it's at, bro!"
I've never read the manga. I liked the anime just fine. You see what I'm getting at?
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LONG-ASS POST TIEM!!11dlk
And I don't know what the fuck colorblind casting means anyway.
The concept is picking the actor who makes the most sense for the role, regardless of race.
This would, of course, mean hiring Japanese people in this case.
You're right on the first but I'm not sure on the second point. We had a non-Japanese Sulu and Chinese Memoirs of a Geisha, they wouldn't have to be Japanese although it'd be nice if they were. Colorblind casting in this case would have at least had a couple of non-white choices and would have had younger men in the roles instead of some of the fogies we ended up with. If they were totally disregarding race, the males leads could be completely different races yet they didn't even try this.
Nope not racially motivated.
If white people weren't the majority with the most money they would not have chosen white actors which means this is not racism.
Duuude, how the hell is that NOT racially motivated when you went and brought in race as a reason? The majority excuse is crap. By that logic, there shouldn't be movies featuring other races at all.
Not enough people are going to see some weird sci-fi flick full of Asian unknowns to make it a worthwhile monetary endeavor.
This must compute.
What do you base that on? To my knowledge, NO ONE HAS TRIED THAT. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon made $128 million over here and it was a Chinese wuxia flick. It had NO RELEVANCE to an American audience and it still made money. Make an awesome, localized sci-fi flick starring up-and-coming Asian-American actors? That shit can totally be done, my man.
You know what? Somebody please prove me wrong. Give me your ideal cast list for the Hollywood adaptation of Akira. All actors must be of Asian descent! Look, I even made it easier for you, I could have said Japanese descent, but since even Japanese movies sometimes portray other Asians as Japanese, I think it's fair.
I believe it would really have to be up-and-coming unknowns for the two leads since they should be older teen boys and they want to cast it too damn old. Unlike young white American males, Asian-American males are severely under-represented and there just isn't a strong known pool of them.
Kei could be Crystal Yi-fei or even Ellen Wong. It should be easier to cast the females.
If they cast it older, there are plenty to choose from here (just toss out the Indians, ha ha) as well as John Cho and James Kyson Lee. http://www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/090501/article.asp?parentID=107812
Racebending's pleas to Warner Bros. make a good point:
"Because Asian Americans are present in every major city in the United States, there is no need to change the ethnicity of the main characters while resetting this story to Manhattan. One out of ten Manhattan residents are Asian American and at 41% of the population, Asian Americans are the largest racial group in Lower Manhattan. Casting white actors for Asian lead characters will reinforce a glass ceiling and reduce opportunities for Asian American actors."
"Actors like Robert Pattison and Andrew Garfield have the privilege of playing iconic white characters that Asian American actors would never be considered for,” said Racebending.com co-founder Marissa Lee. “When white actors are also asked to play iconic Asian characters, Asian American actors lose their shot at starring in anything.”
But I don't think we have to worry about the American moviegoing masses educating themselves of the lore of Akira anytime soon.
Yeah, no one really cares. But it would nice if they could make a fair and awesome movie anyway. The Last Airbender and Dragonball chickened out and that was no great success. They didn't lose any money over it but no one wants to shell out $150M and $30M and only see a 50% return. And none of those people who starred were very known either.
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It's not racially motivated because it's monetarily motivated, like me and Joe said.
Calling it racism is bad science.
Race is the false cause. The true variables to measure here are who has the money and how can they get it from them.
Oh one in 10 people are asian in manhattan? Clearly lets market to them!
Come on you're smarter than this.
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This the part where aDam replies well then the audience is racist.
And then I reply I don't care about the audience I'm talking about the motivation of the film makers, who even if they were asian themselves would realize that this shit will flop nasty if they didn't recast it.
And if you want to call the white audience racist that's fine with me they're no more or less racist than the black or latino audiences.
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What if will smith played the kaneda character and this movie made a huge profit? What would the conclusion be then? More racism?
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This argument is all a rehash of a thread from Squirrel's board.
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What if will smith played the kaneda character and this movie made a huge profit? What would the conclusion be then? More racism?
It would be racist but the movie would make a shit ton of money. Making the whole argument about race moot.
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It's not racially motivated because it's monetarily motivated, like me and Joe said.
Based on the idea that white dudes make more money. Not every big name actor today was always "known". You have to get "known" somehow but if no other races get casted, how the hell do they ever get to be known? Why some pissant like Justin Chatwin or Nicola Peltz or Jackson Rathbone. Those sure as hell aren't big names. If the idea of being "monetarily motivated" is that white people won't see movies without white leads then that IS racist. "Monetarily motivated" is the Last Airbender starring Miley Cyrus and Robert Pattinson, not the nobodies we ended up with.
Oh one in 10 people are asian in manhattan? Clearly lets market to them!
Come on you're smarter than this.
Are you really saying you wouldn't watch a movie starring Asian Americans? If ANY of you would not buy a ticket based solely on the lack of white people in the main cast, then you have proven to yourself that the idea that an Asian lead is "marketing to Asians" is crap. I totally see movies with Asians in them. Putting Asians in this movie would be marketing to me and I ain't Asian.
Did any of you refuse to watch a martial arts film because it stars an Asian? The idea that a movie starring Asians is only marketing to Asians is fallacy. Anime is marketed to Asians but it doesn't stop most of you here from watching it.
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But that's mixing mass-market with nerd tastes.
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Look, forget all the racism crap for a minute.
Akira is obviously intended to be a blockbuster, right? What's the most sensible path to a blockbuster? Well, hopefully you start with a strong script. Then you try to drum up interest among certain parties so as to secure an adequate budget. Then you get together a cast that Joe Blow Moviegoer is going to recognize. You need that. You need stars on a project like this.
How many Asians qualify as stars in America?
You'd need to cast Jet Li as Tetsuo and Jackie Chan as Kaneda.
Or Grant from Mythbusters and Archie from CSI.
Pffft.
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Look, forget all the racism crap for a minute.
Akira is obviously intended to be a blockbuster, right? What's the most sensible path to a blockbuster? Well, hopefully you start with a strong script. Then you try to drum up interest among certain parties so as to secure an adequate budget. Then you get together a cast that Joe Blow Moviegoer is going to recognize. You need that. You need stars on a project like this.
How many Asians qualify as stars in America?
You'd need to cast Jet Li as Tetsuo and Jackie Chan as Kaneda.
Or Grant from Mythbusters and Archie from CSI.
Pffft.
I'd watch that but Jackie Chan is too old.
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And if you want to call the white audience racist that's fine with me they're no more or less racist than the black or latino audiences.
Okay, I didn't reply to this because I just saw it, but who said anything about the white audience being racist? "Less racist than the black or latino audience"? For what? The black and latino audience supporting the one or two meager films that actually come out every year that star a black or latino person? A white audience isn't racist anyway because they aren't even given a choice anymore. All of the major films star mostly whites by default. If you want to see a big blockbuster, you are saddled with a mostly white cast. Period. It's not the audience's fault--white or otherwise--that all of the big-wig head honchos still live in the last century and insist on their shitty casting practices.
Look, forget all the racism crap for a minute.
Really, what do you think racism is? Taking away the few opportunties non-"White America" has for a lead role in what's already a stacked profession is the epitome of racist. If anything, let that fact compute.
Then you get together a cast that Joe Blow Moviegoer is going to recognize. You need that. You need stars on a project like this.
Most of the people being considered for the leads aren't even big stars. Chris Pine? Andrew Garfield's not even a big star. He could be the one who kills the franchise for all anyone knows. James McAvoy, Garrett Hedlund, Michael Fassbende? Who the fuck ARE these people? Would you really be able to get ten random people off of the street able to tell who all of those dweebs even are because THAT's Joe Blow Moviegoer. Joe Blow Moviegoer likes Johnny Depp. They don't know who Garrett Hedlund is.
Advertising and lack of studio support will make or break this film. Bring in a big-name director and producers, big-name co-stars, some product tie-ins and let all of THAT shit whore the movie. Get your leads to do Dancing With the Stars or some shit.
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Even George Takei's gay-ass's unhappy.
http://www.racebending.com/v4/blog/george-takei-tweets-out-on-whitewashed-akira/
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I'm just going to drop it. I'm white. I've never known what it's like to be discriminated against because of the color of my skin. When I see a foreign film being remade for an American audience, and the cast is all-the-way Caucasian, it's status quo as far as I'm concerned.
They often say Hollywood is run by the Jews. It would seem, to a certain extent, that they're inadvertently propagating Hitler's Aryan ideal.
How's that for irony?
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They also like money.
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I'll just put this here: American Akira - feature=player_embedded
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You'd need to cast Jet Li as Tetsuo and Jackie Chan as Kaneda.
I wouldn't even like that. Cause those guys are Chinese, not Japanese. I hate this idea that Chinese and Japanese are interchangeable that Hollywood has. It's how we got a Chinese Storm Shadow and a Karate Kid movie about Kung Fu. I wish I could say I hate these kinda things cause it's racist, but why that bug me it's more about staying true to source material. I'd be just as mad if they a made a black Spider-Man or James Bond (Hell I was mad cause Daniel Craig had the wrong hair color) as I am about this. I was mad about the Chinese Storm Shadow when he was suppose to be Japanese. That's what gets my nerd rage up.
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I hate this idea that Chinese and Japanese are interchangeable that Hollywood has. It's how we got a Chinese Storm Shadow ..... I was mad about the Chinese Storm Shadow...
Lee Byung-hun is South Korean.
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Still not Japanese though.
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I think casting Japanese actors would be ideal but I'd just be happy if they get Asian-American actors period. Baby steps and all of that. Basing it in Neo-Manhattan or whatever makes this feasible.
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That Neo-Manhattan shit is bugging me too.
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Yeah, but there's no way Hollyweird is capable of making a film in Neo-Tokyo. I think they could pull off a Neo-Manhattan one without it being a complete dungpile.
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Oh it's going to be a dungpile no matter what. And I didn't expect them to stick faithfully to the Magna, that thing is long as hell. But I'd just like to not be completely alienated by this film. Oh well, here is hoping it never actually gets made like the new MOTU movie.
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Dude, it's getting made.
And there's nothing anyone can do to stop it.
Starring Carrot Top.
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Well I'm sure when word gets around that I am boycotting this movie they'll stop production. It is only fair to me.
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That's what I thought about G.I.Joe. And Tang-formers II. Good luck with that, buddy.
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G.I. Joe is not a terrible movie. Well, it is, but it's one of those so bad it's good, guilty pleasure things. The Transformers movies are just plain bad. I can't wait for the sequel where they're sure to go apeshit with crazy Cobra operatives.
What they should have done from the beginning is combined both franchises into one movie, which has happened several times throughout comic book history. That way they could have avoided all the superfluous military characters that take up so much screen time in the TF flicks.
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I can't even stomach G.I. Joe as a guilty pleasure...I actually think Joe was worse then the first TF movie, but not the 2nd. I'm betting the 3rd movie will top the 2nd in shear shitatuide though.
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^ I agree with this. I tried watching G.I. Joe and couldn't sit through it. What a waste of Ray Park. I was at least able to hold my food in for TF1.
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A waste of Ray Park? Hahahahaha...
Have you never seen The King of Fighters?
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Nope but, judging by your tone, that wasted him, too.
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A waste of Ray Park? Hahahahaha...
Have you never seen The King of Fighters?
I did over the weekend. Such high production values for such a shitty movie.
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Do you think that the minorities in japan are proportionally represented in japanese media? or that that is fallacy of proportional representation is occurring anywhere?
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The people out here coudn't be more liberal and PC when it comes to race. These "big wigs" or whoever are not racist. If you're not a black female good luck getting a writing gig out here. That was said in not so many word to a white male friend of mine. They do what they do because they know what sells and what doesn't. Is there even a chick who can open a movie these days? Or is it still/was only Julia Roberts?
I'm sure there has been tons of research about people responding to what is most familiar to them in the media. But I don't feel like looking it up.
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Dude, you are fucking bitter about this. :laugh:
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Hell yeah, mainly about that anecdote with my friend, so when people try to say "Oh those hollywood racists are at it again!" I take offense because I can't seem to find those racists so they can option my screen play.
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The people out here coudn't be more liberal and PC when it comes to race.
Nobody care what happens over there. It's what ends up on the screen at the of the day.
They do what they do because they know what sells and what doesn't.
They can't know what's going to sell until they actually try to sell it. An honest attempt to sell it, too, not some under-the-table crap with minimal advertisting and studio support. There is nothing to substantiate that a film with white male leads outsells any other type of lead because white male leads are the majority of lead characters. It's all baloney.
Semi-related: This shit back from 2007 where fucking WB that has three movies with female leads underperform and assumes that it must be the idea of female leads and not the fact that three movies themselves were ASS. http://www.deadline.com/2007/10/warners-robinoff-gets-in-catfight-with-girls/ I'm hardly ready to give them the benefit of the doubt that they aren't racist as well.