According to variety, Keanu Reeves is going to star in a Hollywood retelling of the famous story of the 47 Samurai. It is going to be a period drama set in 18th Century Japan. Read all about it here.

Stage one - denial: Keanu Reeves??? It can’t be true!! They are going to put a white guy in 18th Century Japan and have us believe it? And he can’t even act. He has the range of a dead tree. This just can’t be real.

Stage two - Anger: ARG! This is crazy! They can’t find one Japanese guy to take a roll? Someone rescue Ken Watanbe from the B movie he is probably doing somewhere.

Stage three - Bargaining: Okay, I get that they, the producers, need to have a real box office star if they are going to put up the 100 million or so dollars that it takes to make a movie these days. And lets face it, Ken Watanabe isn’t going to attract massive amounts of box office. But at least can they go the 007 route (in “You only live twice”) and have him wear make up to look Japanese. Help us suspend disbelief a little. At least make the rest of the cast authentically Japanese! Then I’ll support the movie %100!

Stage four - Depression: God this has disaster written all over it. Asian actors really haven’t gotten very far, especially Japanese ones. Watch the same old generic “asian” faces get cast.. Lucy Liu and Sandra Oh as Japanese Geisha. sigh. They aren’t even that hot any more. They hit the wall a few years ago.

Stage five - acceptance: Well at least they are still setting the movie in 18th century Japan, even if it is with a western actor. That is preferable to some kind of alternate setting (medieval Europe?) where western actors would be more appropriate. It is nice to see a big hollywood movie set in Japan, even if it has to star a well known hollywood (non-Japanese) actor. I’ll take what I can get. After what Hollywood is doing with Akira, setting it in New York instead of Tokyo, you almost expect it. And maybe they will be able to find some young Japanese actors to co-star. Some young, and talented enough to get some name recognition to be able to star in future movies.

This might be alright after-all.

Alex