Tom Hardy will star in The Outsider, an "epic story" set in post-World War II Japan about a former American G.I. who becomes part of the yakuza. Yay. Another movie about a white guy's adventures in Asia. (The wrinkle with this one is that it marks the Hollywood English-language debut of prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike.)
What's up with that? Here's Totally Biased writer Kevin Kataoka, talking about Hollywood's popular practice of making movies about Asian subject matter... starring someone who is not Asian. Y'all know what I'm talking about. I've been saying it for years. And Kevin knows what's up too: Asian Evasion.
I wholeheartedly agree that the live-action Akira remake should just be re-named Randy. I've said it many times before, and I'll say it again: Hollywood can make a movie set anywhere in the world, in any era of history... and still somehow find a way for the movie to star a white guy. Always.