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Ken Watanabe drops out of Scorsese's Silence

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S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
http://deadline.com/2015/01/silence-tadanobu-asano-mongol-martin-scorsese-ken-watanabe-1201341580/

EXCLUSIVE: Martin Scorsese has set prolific Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano for a lead in Silence, the film that begins shooting early this year. He joins Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson, and Adam Driver in the Jay Cocks-scripted adaptation of the novel by Shusaku Endo.

Asano is perhaps best known for starring in the Sergey Bodrov-directed Mongol. He replaces Ken Watanabe in the role of an interpreter who accompanies two Jesuit priests (Garfield and Driver) as they search for their mentor (Neeson) who went to 17th Century Japan to spread the gospel of Christianity. Watanabe needed to drop out when production pushed the dates and they clashed with Watanabe’s commitment to the Broadway revival of The King and I, which begins rehearsals in New York this month.
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So, just to recap. Movie started out with Daniel Day Lewis, Benicio Del Toro as leads, replaced by Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver after they dropped out. Now Watanabe has dropped out for Asano.

I'm not really bitter about losing Watanabe. But fuck me the changeover of leads sucks.
 
F

Fugu

Member
I haven't been really keeping up with this, what's the explanation for the excessive turnover?
 
D

Death Metalist

Member
Is there a reason for all the drop outs? Especially when it comes to someone like Scorsese, that's weird. You'd think everyone would enjoy working with that guy. I'm a fan of Ken so that's a shame to see that he decided to drop out, I could see why though.
 
The Lamonster

The Lamonster

Member
Ken Watanabe is kind of a joke actor IMO.

Watch Godzilla. He plays the character "guy with dumb look on his face."

godzilla-ken-watana.jpg
 
S

see5harp

Member
Asano is more of an upgrade in my opinion.

Death Metalist said:
Is there a reason for all the drop outs? Especially when it comes to someone like Scorsese, that's weird. You'd think everyone would enjoy working with that guy. I'm a fan of Ken so that's a shame to see that he decided to drop out, I could see why though.
Click to expand...

It's literally explained in the OP.
 
S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
Death Metalist said:
Is there a reason for all the drop outs? Especially when it comes to someone like Scorsese, that's weird. You'd think everyone would enjoy working with that guy. I'm a fan of Ken so that's a shame to see that he decided to drop out.
Click to expand...

Pretty much all of them have been scheduling conflicts.

Scorsese was going to shoot this before Wolf, but DDL became tied up with Lincoln - which inevitably reduced his appetite for wanting to take on another job for a long time. I think Benicio dropped out when he couldn't work with DDL.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Asano is pretty good.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of how Ken is always the go-to guy whenever Hollywood needs a Japanese man who can speak English fairly well.
 
F

Fudgepuppy

Banned
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Dr.Acula

Banned
Holy shit? Asano? Major major upgrade.

Those not familiar watch Ichi the Killer, Zatoichi, Electric Dragon 80k Volts, Survive Style 5+, or pretty much anything he's ever been in.
 
T

thenexus6

Member
Didn't even know he was attached to this.. I am very much looking forward to his movie with God Van Sant coming up something this or next year about the suicide forest in Japan
 
B

Borgnine

MBA in pussy licensing and rights management
He's had a good run as Japanese guy but we need to start training the next one or else who will be the Japanese guy when a script calls for one?
 
H

harSon

Banned
Lol, I just made this comment this morning (and several times in the past):
harSon said:
Hiroyuki Sanada is pretty prominent within that capacity as well (He's also a better actor :D). Tadanobu Asano probably rounds up the list of Japanese actors who playing 99% of all major Japanese roles in Hollywood films.
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It's ridiculous how true it is. Becoming the to go minority for an underrepresented group has to be pretty lucrative.
 
H

harSon

Banned
Hiroyuki Sanada is by far the best actor out of himself, Watanabe and Asano - and probably has the best grasp of the English language. I think Asano has the most interesting roles, especially earlier in his career. Watanabe is at the bottom of the trio, by quite a bit IMO.
 
J

Jarnet87

Member
I've seen Asano in two films. He's awesome as Kakihara in Ichi The Killer, and then he is in 47 Ronin which is not even worth talking about.
 
H

harSon

Banned
Jarnet87 said:
I've seen Asano in two films. He's awesome as Kakihara in Ichi The Killer, and then he is in 47 Ronin which is not even worth talking about.
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Sharkskin Man & Peach Hip Girl, Survive Style 5+, The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi, Electric Dragon 80.000 V, Vital, Last Life in the Universe, Mongol, Bright Future, etc.

Dude's unbelievably cool in most of his stuff from the late 90s and early 2000s
 
J

Jb

Member
Scullibundo said:
Pretty much all of them have been scheduling conflicts.

Scorsese was going to shoot this before Wolf, but DDL became tied up with Lincoln - which inevitably reduced his appetite for wanting to take on another job for a long time. I think Benicio dropped out when he couldn't work with DDL.
Click to expand...

Weird. So Liam Neeson was originally gonna play Lincoln, which DDL ended doing, and then Neeson took DDL's place in Silence?
 
K

KingofGourds

Member
Scullibundo said:
So, just to recap. Movie started out with Daniel Day Lewis, Benicio Del Toro as leads, replaced by Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver after they dropped out. Now Watanabe has dropped out for Asano.
Click to expand...

Such a downgrade.

What next? Polyester carpet replacing wool in the actor's trailers!?
 
H

harSon

Banned
It'll be nice to see Asano in a role that actually challenges him for once. Everything else he's been asked to do in Hollywood has been trash in comparison.

Edit: Honestly, I'd rather Scorcese can this and go all in with the The Irishman.
 
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Sho_Nuff82

Member
I think this is a series of coincidences that actually make the production sound like a disaster, but in reality they are just that, coincidences. It's not like he's replaced the talented actors with crap.
 
C

Choomp

Banned
I'd never skip out on a Scorsese movie, but after all those dudes dropped out there might be something going on. Just finish this and get to work on The Irishman and the Sinatra movie man
 
S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
harSon said:
It'll be nice to see Asano in a role that actually challenges him for once. Everything else he's been asked to do in Hollywood has been trash in comparison.

Edit: Honestly, I'd rather Scorcese can this and go all in with the The Irishman.
Click to expand...

Stop this, people.
 
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