Akira Remake Producers Have Offered Kristen Stewart the Role of Ky Reed

Sorry, for me this is another nail in what is turning out to be a coffin for Akira.  I’m not giving Stewart any credit for Snow White until I see more than just a trailer.  As far as her playing Joan Jett, The Runaways made Joan Jett seem boring and whiny. 
I will add though, Akira is such an iconic film that anyone that is cast will garner frowns and disapproval from a lot of folks.

Why are people so hung up on the race of the characters?  I never watched Akira and thought, “These guys are SO Japanese!”  The neo-punk styling was more Blade Runner and grungy 1980′s New York underbelly than the clean streets of Tokyo.  The delinquent schooling and teenagers is nothing like the structured Japanese Schools, and I’ve seen real Bosozoku gangs and they are nothing like Akira (give me the rumble of a Harley over a faux-greaser on a moped anyday).

The post-apocalyptic world Akira took place in was generally raceless setting like most P-A franchises where the bomb erases/rewrites nations and cultures.I think we’re missing the forest for the trees, as if having an all Japanese cast means that the movie won’t suck.  What we really need to be looking at is the producers/writers/directors to make sure they can translate the look and feel of Neo-Tokyo to live action.

When Kurosawa remade Macbeth as ‘Throne of Blood’, did he find white people to star in his movie? You make a movie in your country, you hire local leads your audience will recognize. It’ll be made to appeal to general American audiences, of course, which means you won’t enjoy it as much because it won’t be exotic…

Exactly. Ironically, a lot of that is the Japanese getting excited over the dangerous, exciting, exotic American punk and biker subcultures. They take our tropes and remake them to suit their audiences, making it look exotic to us.

An amusing example of reverse-Orientalism is the use of Christian and Jewish symbols in anime to give an exotic feel, much as we used to use Chinese and Indian motifs to give an exotic look.

I’d also say that science fiction fans are particularly fond of the exotic. In SF and fantasy, the Other may be good or bad…in horror, it’s always bad.

spoiler alert:

At the end of ‘From a Buick 8′, when the weird alien creature runs through and the dog attacks it and the characters follow, my first thought was, “Why are you attacking it? You don’t know it wants to hurt you! Maybe you can trade or something…”

They wanted to make the bike black.

That’s all I need to know to make me hate this production.

I’m a big fan of Stewart both as a person and an actress. However, yeah. I’m a little peeved at Hollywood’s white washing of everything.

Anyone who doesn’t see a problem with whitewashing this movie, just check out racebending.com. This stuff IS a problem, whether you think it is or not.

I could not disagree more. It was not a vague post-apocalyptic setting. It was friggin’ Japan. The Japanese context for things such as massive (almost nuclear) explosions, energy based spirituality, being surrounded by American battleships, and the imbalance between youth and elders is unique and important and relevant. The fact is, America doesn’t know what it’s really like to have a city flattened the same way Japan does, and the dynamics are simply different.

Also they changed her name from Kei to Ky? Really?

Its going to be awful, but I’ll watch, especially if Ezra Miller ends up as Tetsuo.

Did you notice that in the trailer for Snow white that she didn’t say a word? I mean you could argue that its in the queen’s perspective, but the huntsman had some dialogue, Snow said nothing. i think that says a lot of what’s coming.

I think my problem with this, is when they have an opportunity to make a diverse movie they fail at it. I could see some of the casting being any color, just go for it but make the freaking lead asian why not? I think its a real problem for Hollywood to just whitewash everything when they could be doing so much more.    

Are you saying that the only people in the US are white? I was under the impression that this country was multicultural and diverse, that there isn’t just one type of person here. I guess all of the people who didn’t come from Western Europe don’t count.

I noticed that too when I was describing to a friend what made the trailer so cool: Charlize Theron is speaking the entire time. Stewart doesn’t say a thing. Hemsworth gets one line.

When we talk about “who Americans want to see” or “who looks like Americans” and “who would be cast in a film made in America”, let’s not forget that Asians and Asian actors are also Americans and part of that population. I can only speak for myself, but as an Asian-American, I would love to see other American actors who look like me in American films, especially when those American films are about a setting in Japan, instead of seeing a movie set in Japan with characters with Japanese names inexplicably starring a cast of white people.

In fact, this argument about “where you make a film” is bull, since they offered British actors Gary Oldman and Helena Bonham Carter the roles of The Colonel and Lady Miyako, respectively, and were in talks with Kiera Knightly. If the “in your country” argument held up, it would only sport American actors, and even then doesn’t solve the question of why no Asian-American actors would be considered. Not “American” enough?

It seems clear that given the offering of roles to the Brits (and I’m sure a few Aussies are in the running, too), the casting is not concerned with country so much as it is by race, falling into the same idea that “white = American”.

From the looks of things, all the characters are keeping their Japanese names: Tetsuo, Kaneda, and Lady Miyako (and I guess Ky could go either way). I guess they’ll all be white and in Japan, so we can just assume that in this post-apocalyptic Japan, white people (portrayed by actors from America and Great Britain) with no Asian heritage lived there and gave birth to children and named them Japanese names.

Apparently the only actors worth casting a movie set in Japan are those from America and the UK, and only then, the white ones.

Oh, for the love of Pete!  Really, Hollywood?  Was Last Airbender not enough of a cautionary tale?  Next they’ll be giving the Director’s job to Shyamalanadingdong.

This movie is going to bomb, badly.

At this point, there are more asians in Blade Runner than in live action Akira. This is, how you say, fucked.

Excellent points.

But I do think they’re setting the new movie in America, and last I heard, they’re changing Tetsuo’s name to “Travis.”

Here’s an idea. How about you DON’T WATCH? And that way maybe producers will get the message and stop making terrible movies that corrupt classic franchises?

I’ll stick to the original film thanks. The last thing I want to see is yet another crappy American white-wash of a classic Japanese film. What’s next? Ghost in the Shell? Perfect Blue? Oh God I’m giving them ideas!

Traaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaavvvvvvvvvviiisssssssssssssss

Yeahhhhh no.. that doesn’t have quite the same ring.. as TETSUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Asian actors or no, the movie still would have been a nightmare for fans everywhere.

My biggest issue with white washing this movie is that the story is so intrinsically Japanese. Other countries don’t understand the emotional impact of having had two cities wiped out by atomic bombs, not to mention the fear of younger generations acting out. Yes Japan is a very clean country but this is a story about their FEARS, not about active reality. Just look at Briton on the older generations absolute fear and dehumanizing of youth (in a recent poll some people accused youths of being little more than beasts!).

Everything about the story of Akira is so deeply tied with events that are unique to Japan and the Japanese culture, you can’t port that to another country and people and just expect it to work. The general movie going audience wont understand the nuance of the story (assuming its even kept intact) and will more then likely be turned off by its content. The actual fans and people familiar with the manga/anime will detest it for defanging it and perverting it into some bland Americanized hogwash. They can’t win!

Not to mention the massive racist overtones of changing the characters to white because it wont ‘sell’ to the American audience. Its offensive that they think this and its offensive that they aren’t giving their viewers a chance to actually see people who don’t fit a narrow stereotype. Heaven forbid people expand their horizons.

And be a hypocrit, complaining about something I haven’t even seen? No thanks. Even if its a train wreck, it should be an entertaining one.

And hence, you show the producers that you are entertained just fine by white-washed trainwrecks. And the cycle continues…

Who the heck is Ky Reed?! I don’t remember her in the source material…

I recall someone called Kay, possibly with a more complicated surname, in the described role…

Your point was nullified by the 8th word of your post. Kurosawa at least had the common decency to rename the film, change the setting etc – it was “based” on Macbeth, he didn’t try to pass it off AS Macbeth. Fundamental difference vs this situation.

For a short, glorious period I forgot that they were also pulling in a far too youthful, physically fit actress to play Miyako (main identifying trait: old “wise woman” type character, overweight, partially crippled so that she has to be portered around…). Agh. Thanks for reminding me, not.

And “Ky” is not the same name as “Kay”, is it. You’ve lost a letter, and not in the same way that John becomes Jon (btw, another issue I have with this is that part of the film’s impact is in how the title name is just-another-common-kids-name in japan, despite sounding exotic to us: if it’s going to be Americanised, it needs to be CALLED “John” in the west).

If it was in the original language, you would have to write the name with an entirely different kanji to represent that sound, or half as many kana, neither of which were present beforehand.

Quite why they felt a need to change what was already the most western-style name is baffling.

Have you even seen the film, or read the manga? It’s got some of the most ethnically japanese looking characters out of those entire media (if we consider titles from the mid 60s onwards, anyway). Almost everyone has dark hair and epicanthic folds. The few pointedly western characters tower over them and look quite different. There’s much use of particular landmarks in the Neo Tokyo setting, both surviving or remade ones in the preserved part of town, and melted/half collapsed in the old, previously nuked part.

At the same time, not much of a point is made of race – instead, one of nationality. There’s a black guy who’s initially a leader of a rival gang (then eventually teams up with Kaneda)… but he appears to be naturalised japanese despite his skin tone (in real life, that would actually be less likely). There’s more conflict between the darker haired westerners and the native japanese characters than there is between him and his eventual comrades in arms.

To play a little to stereotypes myself – when you have a japanese author (from the 80s no less) being less rigidly ethnocentric and seemingly xenophobic than yourself, as a filmmaker in the “land of the free” that famously offers (offered?) to take in the downtrodden peoples of the whole world, you’re probably getting it a little wrong.

KAAAAAAAANNEEEEEEEEDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!

Isn’t calling him Shyamalamadingdong a little racist? It sounds like a joke about Indian names, not about his skill as a director.

What about “ShyamaYAWN?” Or “SHAMalan?” Or “Self-Indulgent Cameo… alan?”

Arguably, Black Swan was a remake of Perfect Blue. At least, it probably has more in common with the the anime than this Akira movie will.

I think it was spelled “Kei,” but yeah, it’s that character. And boy howdy, will Kristen Stewart’s acting style ever do justice to the intense personality of that firebrand.

I love you Frodo. :D

Shama -WHAT-A-TWIST!