Eisler isn't just some author either - he's "ex" CIA which helps if you want to write this type of series. [I don't think anyone ever truly leaves the CIA. And know just enough to know...without going into details, here]

Layered and complex is what KR tries to bring IMHO to every character so it sounds like a great fit.

The books have interested me from the start but my book list is long now. /fanguuurling off.

In the books, Rain is half Japanese, half Caucasian-American, but looks mostly Japanese (in part because of a little long-ago plastic surgery around the eyes, intended to help him blend in Tokyo). Certainly there’s some Asian heritage in Keanu’s features, but he’s not going to pass for Japanese the way the Rain of the novels does. But that’s okay: what’s vital to the character, IMO, is his sense of dislocation, his alienation, his longing to belong coupled with his inability to do so

I was going to post the two paragraphs about Rain's 'corrective surgery', but now there's not much point to it. Eisler says it way much better :)

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"I owe Keanu Reeves a life"

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But it's not the same issue.... hair color or nationality changes don't mean that much if the character and actor still stayed of the same race as the original....
( side note: funny, everyone yelled about Reeves being dark haired and American(!)as opposed to comics!Constantine being blond and Scottish, but no-one said a whisper about Reeves being mixed race....)

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Both those things. The more I read about this movie the more I can see why Keanu is excited about it and the more I'm fascinated by the character - a dislocated, self-conscious assassin who feels bad about killing people but does it anyway because it's the one thing he identifies with and helps him know who he is? heck yes. I love it, and it's the kind of thing Keanu specialises in. :D

But I wouldn't say it's comparable to changes in hair colour and so on. It's the fiction/reality divide. The former is more of an issue from the fiction angle, where fans want a character to look like how they imagined, while the essence of a character should be more important. That's what Eisler said so well, and he's the writer, ultimately determines who the character should be or look like, so that settles that part of it.

But then there's the real world part of it, where there's probably at least one Asian actor somewhere who might be a huge fan of the series and has always hoped to play Rain, because while he'd never have a realistic chance at getting cast as, say, James Bond, or John Constantine, for the first time there's a fictional character that he actually has a shot at playing; and then it goes to someone who already had those other opportunities.

Analogy: It's like how Keanu used to be kept out of auditions because he looked "too ethnic" and not white enough to play, say, John Doe. So maybe Tom Cruise got the role instead. And then this happens a few more times. And then say that there's a new film, in which the protagonist is this half-white half-Chinese/Hawaiian dude, and Keanu thinks "finally!"; but then they announce that they've already cast Tom Cruise.

So that's usually the issue here that makes people upset, and is something I can definitely understand.

At the same time, this would be the first time he actually gets to play a character of similar racial mix as him who wasn't a later addition like Kai was. It's the fact that I thought John was initially supposed to look completely Japanese that was the main sticking point for me. Such that it also helped a lot to read how Eisler said that John only looked 'mostly' Japanese, not fully, so there's some wiggle room there that might best fit a mixed actor.

When I returned to Tokyo in the early eighties, my brown hair, a legacy from my mother, worked for me the way a fluorescent vest does for a hunter, and I had to dye it black to develop the anonymity that protects me now. But in the last few years the country has gone mad for chappatsu, or tea-color dyed hair, and I don't have to be so vigilant about the dye anymore.

[...]

That someone became my alter ego, and over time, I took steps to erase the footprints of the real John Rain. Among other things, I no longer use my birth name or anything connected with it, and I've had surgery to give my somewhat stunted epicanthic folds a more complete Japanese appearance. I wear my hair longer now, as well, in contrast to the brush cut I favored back then. And wire-rim glasses, a concession to age and its consequences, give me a bookish air that is entirely unlike the intense soldier's countenance of my past. Today I look more like a Japanese academic than the halfbreed warrior I once was.

[...]

"I grew up in both countries," I said after a long pause. "I never lived in New York, but I've spent some time there, and I know some of the region's accents."
[...]
"My mother was American."
I was aware of a slight intensification of her gaze, as she searched for the first time for the Caucasian in my features. You can still spot it, if you know what you're looking for.
"You don't look very… I mean, I think you must have inherited mostly your father's features."
"That bothers some people."
"What does?"
"That I look Japanese, but I'm really something else."
I remembered for a moment the first time I heard the word ainoko, half-breed. It happened at
school, and I asked my father about it that night. He scowled and said only, "Taishita koto nai." It’s nothing. But pretty soon I got to hear the word while the ijimekko, the school bullies, were busy trying to beat the shit out of me, and I put two and two together.

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than the halfbreed warrior I once was.

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...Kai? :|

There were bullies on both sides, of course

Jimmy and I had met, in a sense, through his younger sister, Deirdre. She was a beautiful, blackhaired Irish rose, and one of the few people who was nice to the awkward, out-of-place kid I was in
Dryden. Some idiot told Jimmy I liked her, which was true, of course, and Jimmy decided he didn't like a guy with slanty eyes hitting on his sister. He was bigger than I was, but I fought him to a standstill. After that, he respected me, and became my ally against the Dryden bullies, my first real friend. Deirdre and I started dating, and woe to anyone who gave Jimmy a hard time about it.

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And wire-rim glasses, a concession to age and its consequences, give me a bookish air that is entirely unlike the intense soldier's countenance of my past.

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Ooohhh brainy specs! Gonna like to see them. :D

Dunno if my wire rim glasses make me look brainy or not but I can't see more than 4 foot in front of me without them on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szuP0oBZX4g

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Brainy_specs because I love Doctor Who and David Tennant is one of my favorite Doctors and actors, too.

I'm so excite about this coming. It excites me to know that I will be able to see Keanu on every week. I wish that I knew more about this in the news but I'll have to find out about this in due time!

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So I'll know where to tune in and watch it when it goes to television.

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Hang on. Where are we in this process? Has a network even ordered a pilot, much less a full season of this thing? I'm as excited as anyone at the thought of seeing K on the regular, but there's no sense in getting ahead of ourselves.

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Has a network even ordered a pilot, much less a full season of this thing?

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Only the broadcast networks [NBC, ABC etc] work in the antiquated pilot first, then order the season. The last place I want to see this is on a broadcast network. [of course the first episode is still referred to as the pilot]

Netflix buys them by the season and allows the show runners to go nuts. [listen to Roth explain working with them for his fun but silly show called Hemlock Grove. 2 seasons now] http://www.nerdist.com/pepisode/nerdist-podcast-eli-roth/ [this interview with Roth also discussed KK and working with KR]

HBO and other premium channels also buy by the season. See True Detective writer discuss working with them.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/04/inside-the-obsessive-strange-mind-of-true-detective-s-nic-pizzolatto.html

Kevin Spacey video about the antiquated pilot format, netflix and the future. http://youtu.be/oheDqofa5NM

speech transcript in full: "The cable television model is dying, and it seems like everyone knows it except the cable companies themselves. Take one look at Netflix, which is breaking the traditional model by selling its subscription streaming service and letting users enjoy content at their own pace, including movies and TV shows, which are released entire seasons at a time."
http://www.ibtimes.com/kevin-spacey-speech-why-netflix-model-can-save-television-video-full-transcript-1401970

"Kevin Spacey Speech Urges Broadcast Networks To Adopt Netflix Model At The Edinburgh Television Festival (VIDEO)"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/26/kevin-spacey-speech-tv-future_n_3817956.html

Think and I could be wrong but they are completely throwing out the mold on how to bring a story to TV.

Movies.com: Looking forward a bit, can you tell us about a project you're involved with called Rain?

Reeves: The Rain series was a bunch of novels by a guy named Barry Eisler. I think there's eight of them. And I was actually brought the Rain series by Chad and Dave. We were looking for other stuff, so I read the book and loved the character. And originally it was, "Let's make a movie of this," but you can't really make a movie of that character. There was one movie done before, I think they did Rain Fall. It's got Gary Oldman in it, but I've never seen it. But now we're looking at the idea of making a television series out of it.

Well, I have seen it, and it's even less faithful to Eisler's book than Constantine the movie was to the Hellblazer comics, if you get my meaning :|
The movie itself is pretty bad, and it doesn't do justice to anyone and anything :(

KR was right, 'you can't really make a movie of that character', there's simply not enough time to develop the character properly in two hours.