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AZM Allies Mark and @nerdycanuck sent over an interesting story about Toby Kebbell, reported to be the number one actor in line for the role of Tetsuo Shima in Warner Bros live-action Akira thing. Though he was initially excited about the prospect of playing the character, there were things about the production that didn’t sit well with him:

They were like, “This is going to be a big franchise!” So I said, “Then in that case, understand that I’ve read the comics, and I’ve read the comics that got turned into the annuals, and then the annuals that got turned into the one-off anime. So if you really want to do it, then why don’t you look at the six comics and just put two into each film?”

That way my character, Tetsuo, is not the lead. He’s not the second lead, and he’s not the third or the fourth lead, because there are eight major characters there. You’ve got great young actors, and you could get them in there. That’s the way to do it if you want to do sequels.

They were like, “Welllll…” So I told them, “Then this is a remake [of the animated movie], and I don’t want to do a live-action remake of the cartoon, because [the cartoon] is perfect and you’re not going to do it dark enough — so therefore, I don’t want to do it.

One of his biggest problems was one of my biggest problems, casting Tetsuo and Kaneda as brothers:

The other thing they wanted to do was make [Tetsuo and Kaneda] brothers. I was like, “The point is that Tetsuo can’t comprehend how someone who isn’t his brother could love him so much — and that’s where his wrath and his rage come from. Do you not see that? Why have you made them brothers? What the fuck are you doing?

It’s refreshing to hear such honesty from a young actor who could potentially be burning many bridges by not only saying such things in studio meetings but to also put his concerns out there for the general public. Toby’s got some stones and I will be looking for him in the future.

As it stands now, I doubt that we’ll ever see the live-action Akira in its current form. I suspect that if it gets revived, it will get a total re-work which may be a good thing. Probably not, but I’m hopeful. It sounds like there are enough people in Hollywood familiar with either the manga or anime or both to know that as it is now, this movie is nothing like Akira.

From: IFC

Never expected to be talking about The Hunger Games in the context of racism, but here we are.

AZM Ally Kenneth Lyons, Jr. writes in with word that apparently, there is a select group of people who saw the movie this past weekend who were surprised to see Amandla Stenberg play the character of Rue. In the book, Rue is described as having “dark brown skin and eyes” so to me it makes sense that cast someone who has, um, dark brown skin and eyes. Apparently, it doesn’t make sense to everyone.

Hunger Game Tweets popped up over the weekend to document tweets written by people who are incensed that Rue is black. Funny enough, some of these people actually read the book!

One of the powers of literary fiction is that your mind gets to cast the characters in any way you see fit. Sometimes, even if the description of a character is explicit, your mind swaps in your personal ideal. I guess some people read “brown skin and eyes” and thought, hey, Rue’s a cute little blond. I mean, I guess Snooki has brown skin, well, brown-orange skin. Were they thinking Rue was a Snooki with blond hair? So confused.

If there were no physical descriptions of skin tone in the book, I could more than understand the confusion. I don’t understand why it would ruin the movie, but I could understand some of the surprise. I think a few of the tweets that have been posted were ones of genuine surprise. Maybe some read the bit about Rue looking like Prim just glossed over the brown skin part.

I suspect that this reaction to Rue is a minority opinion. Until Kenneth sent over this tumblr, the only thing I ever heard about The Hunger Games was ZOMG FUCKING HUNGER GAMES HAVE YOU READ THE BOOKS THEY ARE THE AWESOME SAUCE HOLY SHIT THE MOVIE AND STUFF! A quick search of twitter now comes up with a whole lot of people making fun of those who are surprised that Rue is black. The box office numbers clearly indicate that more people did not have a problem with Rue than did. That gives me a lot of hope.

AZM Ally Jeff Posey writes in with exceedingly awesome news. Because the fan swell for “Legend of Korra” is so great and because the website got over 100,000 likes and shares, the first two episodes will air March 24 online at Korranation.com!

It’s Christmas in Spring!!!

I find Willam to be one of the most insufferable queens on this season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, but this is pretty awesome.

If you weren’t aware, Chick-fil-A is owned by some fundamentalist Christian group that is decidedly anti-homosexual and believes in church over foods which is why you can’t get your waffle fry on when Sunday rolls around. Nevertheless, Chick-fil-A is damned tasty, so much so that these three drag queens, Willam Belli, Detox, and Vicky Vox put together this tribute song advertising a company that hates them.

Ah, the power waffle fries.