First, as has been pointed out, almost everybody except for the Major and Batou are Asian; I guarantee you this film is an opportunity for them, and you're hoping for them to fail, all because they made the Major white (whoopdy doo).
That's right boys and girls! Asians will be where they've always been in Hollywood movies!
In the background! Or as a dumb sidekick to the competent westerner! No lead role for you! American audiences can't POSSIBLY understand what human beings that look different from them feel!
LEAD ROLES are what matter. Things aren't getting better for Asian actors (and other minorities lets be honest) fast enough. No lead roles in any American production, let alone a tentpole release like GITS where it would have made perfect sense given the setting, the creator, the themes etc.
If it's a good movie, how would it hurt anime adaptations? I don't see how it'd be anything but a good thing for anime adaptations if this film does well.
As I said on the Whitewashing thread.
Hollywood always takes the wrong messages away from it's box office successes.Look, I'm not saying you can't make a profitable movie based on a Formula. The PROBLEM is that the math isn't really there yet, so Hollywood Opts to use
stupid formulas to try to achieve profitable results.
For instance, if a movie based off of a popular young adult novel (Hunger Games, Harry Potter), is popular enough to make a billion dollar blockbuster franchise off of. It must mean EVERY popular young adult novel can potentially make a billion dollar franchise. So the Studio's greenlit dozens of them, and most were terrible, Divergent and Maze Runner fizzled at the Box Office. Proving that formula wrong. People didn't want Young Adult Novel movies, they wanted Harry Potter and Hunger Games movies.
If this GITS movie is a success. Studio executives will see this movie's success and think 'We can whitewash Japanese-based properties and STILL MAKE A PROFIT?".
They'll see a formula to exploit, they'll Greenlight EVERY Anime movie that's been in development hell since the early 2000's and a side effect of that will be Asian actors being screwed over more than they are now.
I recommend you check this article railing against Hollywood's exploitation of Formulaic storytelling.
http://www.the-fanboy-perspective.com/a ... aking.htmlsurely you see the futility in this all, right?
Like Homura in a Time loop. . .