How many kids did Last Air Bender or DragonBall turn into crack whores???? :-O

wow, they're all so cute!!!! Unfortunately, this is going to be way too late. This movie has already been "re-envisioned" and is being set in New York to justify the casting. You know... "re-envisioning" isn't ALWAYS such a bad thing - but in the case of Akira.... I really do shake my head because it just seems like it's such an iconic and classically Japanese film AND the people who actually know the franchise/brand already love what it is and it's just not going to go over well to change it. It's not that kind of brand. I just don't know why they didn't start from scratch on a new idea. Okay - but here's a rant about the whole bankability issue (for Asian actors in Hollywood films.) A major problem is that people are expecting Hollywood to make an actor into a star and Hollywood doesn't really specialize in that - certainly not anymore. Hollywood sees what is and exploits it on a larger scale. Very few people at all can sell films and in order for Hollywood to view an actor as bankable - it is totally a numbers issue. Will they bring in their own crowd? I think it helps to look at someone like Will Smith who crossed over into major bankability and his path. I find a lot of the Asian actors who I speak with very interested in making Asian-centric films... that's fine, but it is not going to be the avenue to making oneself bankable. That happens only in "cross over" movies. And, amazingly, it really only takes one maybe two crossover success films to make this happen (plus some good PR effort.) The best way to do this is to exploit an actor's existing fan base in movies which have cross-over potential. Basically make a lower budget film that the fan base will support - but the film's theme and nature could appeal to a broad Hollywood audience. Maybe the first doesn't work, but eventually one of these movies will find a wider audience amongst all communities and you'll have your bankable actor.