http://deadline.com/2014/08/keanu-reeves-to-star-in-rain-tv-series-for-slingshot-global-media-820944/

Patience has never been my virtue....although....

I'm siiiinging in the rain....
http://youtu.be/D1ZYhVpdXbQ

edit to change link. Clockwork Orange is probably too dark. Gene Kelly instead, hey?

But meanwhile, John Rain is described as having undergone plastic surgery to hide his Caucasian heritage and look fully Japanese. dammit Hollywood, couldn't you have found an actual Japanese actor, then? >_> Even if it were a new actor or an unknown, this could have been someone's great vehicle to stardom, and the lost opportunity is sad given how there are barely if any TV protagonist roles that explicitly call for Asian actors. If the character was supposed to look mixed, Keanu could be justified, but this is... a lot more questionable. gah. The internet fallout is going to be bad (it's already started), and this time I can't even argue. I'll just pick off the ones that insult Keanu for unrelated reasons.

So now he has:

River's Edge
Life Under Water
Point Break
Echo (short film based on the story of Narcissus, the entirety of which took place next to a pond)
A Walk in the Clouds (clouds are totally water)
The Lake House

and Rain.

yesssss.

Niagara Falls in Henry's Crime

er, have we forgotten the water element in Constantine?

"Matrix rain"

rain in the opening scene of Hardball...in a pivotal scene in Sweet November...being underwater in the Replacements...the river scene in Little Buddha...water element of sonoluminescence [sp?] in Chain Reaction...

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The vast wasteland of television has been replaced by an excess of excellence that is fundamentally altering my media diet and threatening to consume my waking life in the process. I am not alone. Even as alternatives proliferate and people cut the cord, they are continuing to spend ever more time in front of the TV without a trace of embarrassment.

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And what a feast. Right now, I am on the second episode of Season 2 of “House of Cards” (Netflix), have caught up on “Girls” (HBO) and am reveling in every episode of “Justified” (FX). I may be a little behind on “The Walking Dead” (AMC) and “Nashville” (ABC) and have just started “The Americans” (FX), but I am pretty much in step with comedies like “Modern Family” (ABC) and “Archer” (FX) and like everyone one else I know, dying to see how “True Detective” (HBO) ends. Oh, and the fourth season of “Game of Thrones” (HBO) starts next month.

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All the new windows for content have created an in-migration of creative interest. David Fincher, one of Hollywood’s most coveted directors, followed up producing “House of Cards” by signing on to make a series for HBO called “Utopia.” Guillermo del Toro, a big-deal director, has created a series called “The Strain” for FX. Oliver Stone spent a great deal of time making a history program on Showtime and now word comes that Robert Redford is doing documentaries for CNN.

Even at the Oscars, Hollywood’s biggest night, TV seemed like the cool hipster at the party.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/business/media/fenced-in-by-televisions-excess-of-excellence.html?_r=0

Not KR specific but TV specific

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Ani - what can I say? the writer of the books is co-producing the tv series... if he had any objections to KR playing John Rain, he could have said so when first approached in March this year...

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Nah, I was speaking more broadly of Hollywood's casting patterns in general. The people involved in the series all seem really stoked to have Keanu on board, and I'm happy for him, and definitely excited to see how he fares in the TV medium. But Hollywood has a poor track record of casting Asian actors in Asian roles, and the latter are already so few as it is, especially as protagonists in a TV series; I can't even think of a single one. :/ This could have been the first big one.

Plus with Rain, the character's physical/racial appearance seems to have some significance - apparently there are themes of identity and John trying to find his place in the world and fit in somewhere, hence the plastic surgery to look completely Japanese and blend in with the other Japanese people he lives among. So I'm not sure how that part of it would work with an actor who looks more like how John would have looked prior to that surgery. It's possible they'll ditch that part of it, but even if the writer is fine with that, I don't like the idea of sacrificing story to fit an actor. Or they might do it as a prequel thing, which would seem the best option for that.

Oh - I just found out that the first adaptation was a movie, starring (fully) Japanese actor Kippei Shiina. Ok, so at least they had that. But it seems to confirm that that's what John looks like, racially, and I have a hard time suspending belief when a character of a particular race is portrayed by another who is clearly not that race (both ways - I've seen at least one Asian guy play a character with a Caucasian last name, and I spent most of the movie trying to come up with a headcanon to justify it... like maybe he was adopted, or it's a pseudonym).

Constantine is a classic case of what a character looked like in the comics v the movie adaptation. KR nailed the character, despite not looking or sounding like the one in the comics.

Now NBC has a series based on the comics and while the character looks the part [hair color] and sounds it [the *correct* accent] the show is being panned. Those that saw the pilot were not happy at all.

So sure book John Rain might have been surgically altered at some point [haven't read them yet either] but that wouldn't be practical for *any* actor going forward. No matter, some fans of the books will complain about the series.

Game of Thrones for example while following very faithfully GRRM's original work they had to make many necessary changes [reduction in characters for one] for it to work as a series. There are purists who are complaining still. While I have read the entire series to date of GoT, I still highly enjoy the series and appreciate the necessary changes. JMHO.

I'm just saying I can understand why it *is* an issue. And before commenting further, I'll have to read the books. And watch the tv series.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/keanu-reeves-is-latest-star-to-go-tv-20140818

personally, I find the "he's a BADASS" thing somewhat depressing. John Rain ( I've read two of the books) IS "badass" - but he's not all that happy about it and he is quiet about it, hence the thing of assasinations looking like death by natural causes. I think this language sets up an expectation much like that in the Matrix films, where that particular demographic was pissed off because Neo didn't just kick ass and destroy the Machine world. Barry Eisler's writing is much more complex and much more layered than it is "badass."