many have thought that an all asian cast wouldn't work, which i also believed, but recently i saw "Letters from Iwo Jima" which consists of almost an all Japanese cast. The movie is in Japanese with english here and there with subtitles. Now this movie has garnered academy nominations and did well at the box office, which leads me to believe that an all asian cast might not be inaccessable for american audiences.

what do you think?

Didn't Letters from Iwo Jima bomb? Americans don't like reading sub-titles.

But yeah, the whole cast except for Asuka should be Japanese.

Rommel wrote:Didn't Letters from Iwo Jima bomb? Americans don't like reading sub-titles.

But yeah, the whole cast except for Asuka should be Japanese.

lol. Americans can't read!!!

Yea, if the live action movie does happen in Japan, I don't really want to see a white Shinji or a black Rei. Asuka can be white, Ritsuko can be white (I guess).

Tokpile Quohog wrote:

Rommel wrote:Didn't Letters from Iwo Jima bomb? Americans don't like reading sub-titles.

But yeah, the whole cast except for Asuka should be Japanese.

lol. Americans can't read!!!

Yea, if the live action movie does happen in Japan, I don't really want to see a white Shinji or a black Rei. Asuka can be white, Ritsuko can be white (I guess).

Hey, I CAN READ :evil:
Seriosly, havent thought of it.

Not everyone need be Japanese. As it's been said already, they could find a German actress to play Asuka. Plus, they would need people from various different countries to play the SEELE members. I'm sure SEELE 08 has a number of actors already set to play Keel-chan.

True, but if it shot in Japan most of them should be Japanese. Also, standing out like that would play to Asuka's personality, since it would highlight both her desire to stand out and the fact that she alone. Rei, I could go either. The toughest thing would be making her hair look believable in film. Same with Misato, but hers is darker so so a shimering black, maybe with a hint of dark purple, would look fine.

I think it would be best if they had regular color hair. All the Japanese characters with black hair. Rei could maybe have white/gray to make her stand out.

EVA Does It Best wrote:many have thought that an all asian cast wouldn't work, which i also believed, but recently i saw "Letters from Iwo Jima" which consists of almost an all Japanese cast. The movie is in Japanese with english here and there with subtitles. Now this movie has garnered academy nominations and did well at the box office, which leads me to believe that an all asian cast might not be inaccessable for american audiences.

I think you're looking in the wrong direction. I have a feeling that Live Action Movie, Evangelion's audience are pretty much going to be the same as Transformers'

Because of movies like "Memoirs of a Geisha", "Letters from Iwo Jima", "Kill Bill", and the various Kung-Fu movies that Tarantino has brought over, the likelihood that the cast will be mostly asian is probably around 60%. If that happens, the likelihood of that we're gonna have Koreans and Chinese playing Japanese is very high, and the likelihood that Japanese will sound amazingly like English when spoken by the main characters is almost a given.

Evangelion's audience are pretty much going to be the same as Transformers'

People have been saying that Transformers would be a good judge to see if ELAM could be done for a while, but after seeing the new trailers I really don't think so. It's an action movie. Evangelion isn't.

Transformers is cashing in on the nostalgia factor for the majority of people going. Plus, trying to get the current generation of kids interested in terms of selling more toys. The Eva Live Action wouldn't be going after either. I'd say that some people going to Transformers would be Eva fans, but the vast majority will have never heard of Eva. Thus, the audience may be different and smaller.

EDIT: I just noticed I am a Forum Elder now. :)

Szmitten wrote:

Evangelion's audience are pretty much going to be the same as Transformers'

People have been saying that Transformers would be a good judge to see if ELAM could be done for a while, but after seeing the new trailers I really don't think so. It's an action movie. Evangelion isn't.

Its because of the Big Robot and adapted from a Cartoon/Anime concept. People have it in their minds that if Transformers is a success then it'll open the door for other projects like it. Personally I tend to agree with them I know Evangelion isn't strictly an Action Film but I believe that if Transformers is a success people will look more seriously at things like Eva.

cat42 wrote:

EVA Does It Best wrote:many have thought that an all asian cast wouldn't work, which i also believed, but recently i saw "Letters from Iwo Jima" which consists of almost an all Japanese cast. The movie is in Japanese with english here and there with subtitles. Now this movie has garnered academy nominations and did well at the box office, which leads me to believe that an all asian cast might not be inaccessable for american audiences.

I think you're looking in the wrong direction. I have a feeling that Live Action Movie, Evangelion's audience are pretty much going to be the same as Transformers'

Because of movies like "Memoirs of a Geisha", "Letters from Iwo Jima", "Kill Bill", and the various Kung-Fu movies that Tarantino has brought over, the likelihood that the cast will be mostly asian is probably around 60%. If that happens, the likelihood of that we're gonna have Koreans and Chinese playing Japanese is very high, and the likelihood that Japanese will sound amazingly like English when spoken by the main characters is almost a given.

In that case it's better with a caucasian cast. When I heard about what they did to Memoirs of a Geisha, I remember giggling to myself and thinking that they'd butchered the whole thing.

HAY GUYS, LET'S MAKE A MOVIE ABOUT STUFF IN Japan, BUT THEY HAVE TO SPEAK ENGLISH

OH NOES! THE JAPS DOESN'T SPEAK GOOD ENOUGH ENGLISH! Psst! let's use a chinese cast. they speak better english and NOONE WILL NOTICE! Let's NOT make the movie in Japanese with a Japanese cast instead.

If ELAM is like this, I won't see it, just like I didn't see Memoirs of a Geisha.

jcmoorehead wrote:Its because of the Big Robot and adapted from a Cartoon/Anime concept. People have it in their minds that if Transformers is a success then it'll open the door for other projects like it. Personally I tend to agree with them I know Evangelion isn't strictly an Action Film but I believe that if Transformers is a success people will look more seriously at things like Eva.

I believe Transformers will do a good job. But it's Evangelion that'll worry me. Will they do the Eva justice knowing how Americans do movies here?

chiefen wrote:If ELAM is like this, I won't see it, just like I didn't see Memoirs of a Geisha.

I thought Memoirs was pretty good despite that fact.

chiefen wrote:OH NOES! THE JAPS DOESN'T SPEAK GOOD ENOUGH ENGLISH! Psst! let's use a chinese cast. they speak better english and NOONE WILL NOTICE!

In Hollywood thay can't tell the difference, they just know the people are asian, and they truly don't care. Also, there are only 5 Japanese people in Hollywood.

Szmitten wrote:[Transformers is an action movie. Evangelion isn't.

Anno's Evangelion isn't only an action thing, LAME will be.

@ cheifen

Yeah, I remember that controversy over "Memoirs of a Geisha".

@ jcmoorehead

I agree that if Transformers does well (and currently every indication says it will), the possibility of Live Action Eva gets brighter.

And there's something I just wondered. This may need its own or is already a thread somewhere. We've talked about who might direct LAE, but what about whose banner would it be under? Who would distribute it? I know Transformers is under Dreamworks(due to Spielberg's production involvement)/Paramount. Maybe Bruckheimer would take notice and want to throw money at LAE. How about Universal? Or what about Murdoch and 20th Century Fox? He he, imagine the opening fanfare now.
How about something more, ahem, creepy? United Artists. You know who's running that studio now, don't you? The couch-jumping, placenta-snarfing, Scientology-proselytizing psycho himself!! :twisted: MWAHAHAHAHA!!!

I hope that Micheal Bay doesnt butt-fuck the Transformers as a franchise.

Executor wrote:I hope that Micheal Bay doesnt butt-fuck the Transformers as a franchise.

just like he did with pearl harbor

anyway, why not have Japanese american actors for the appropriate roles, Asuka's german, so have a german actress.

it's unecessary to have ELAM in Japanese, many Japanese shows have americans speaking Japanese, i don't think it's that big of a deal to have them speak english when they're Japanese, unless you're doing something historic, say like letters from iwo jima (not hear to bitch about chinese playing Japanese.

i think it's lame to have any asian actor play a Japanese person also, so don't get me wrong about that, but ELAM WILL be in english so i don't think it will matter too much to have say a chinese american play a Japanese. Just like white actors of american descent playing a brit or vice versa.

my post was just pointing out

British actors anyone?

Ha. "'Ello Aska, care for a cup of tea."
Why, thank you."

No, British would not work.

Memoirs was good, though Japanese would have been better. As for Rei, White hair might work bette,r and since one of the theories on Rei's hair color is Albinism, White would work Story-wise. But I'm not sure if Rei would be Rei without blue hair. Maybe just a lighter shade of blue.

Isn't the dude from "House" English? They CAN pull off "American" accents if need be, just look at The Beatles' songs.