Racebending.com has Launched a Online Petition Protesting All-white Shortlist for ‘Akira’.The website was founded 2009 by fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender who were appalled by the casting discrimination that occurred during the production of the The Last Airbender film adaptation.
Here’s what they posted on there website:
Hollywood is adapting the classic manga and anime AKIRA to the silver screen. Given the current lack of lead roles for actors of color in the science fiction genre, the complex characters of AKIRA would be a great opportunity for Asian American actors. Will directors Albert and Allen Hughes cast Asian American actors to play the iconic roles of Kaneda and Tetsuo?
From the campaign’s
Facebook page .(via You Bent My Wookie):
On March 21st, 2011, Deadline.com reported that eight actors have been solicited for the roles of Tetsuo and Kaneda in AKIRA. All of the actors solicited were white. If not in a film called Akira, for characters named Kaneda and Tetsuo, when will Asian Americans get to star in a Warner Bros film?
Please virtually “attend” this petition event to show your support! It will provide us with a headcount so we know how many people feel strongly about this issue.
We would like to present the numbers from this petition to the studio to show them that all media consumers–not just Akira fans and not just Asian Americans–support keeping casting Asian Americans in the lead roles in AKIRA.
In Addition Warner Bros recently revealed a shortlist that indicated only Caucasian actors are currently in the running for the lead roles of Kaneda and Tetsuo in their live-action remake of
Akira. The shortlist also showed that the studio is only considering actors ten years older than the originally teenaged characters. But we all knew that it wasn’t going to be a faithful adaptation it’s Hollywood after all.
So how do you guys feel about Warner Bros only considering Caucasian actors?
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