Many thanks to the Film Industry Network for tweeting their link!
Iain Alexander has posted an article, ‘Don’t Rule Out Keanu Reeves in 47 Ronin Just Yet’ for Film Industry Network. He has laid out all the reasons why 47 Ronin has potential and has stated the obvious that The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and the others have chosen to overlook.
First and foremost, while 47 Ronin is based on a Japanese story and has Japanese actors in the cast, it doesn’t change the fact that it an American film competing in a country that has a strong film industry of its own. 47 Ronin opened against two strong anime based Japanese films and while in finished in third place, it edged out Captain Phillips and Reds 2.
The films original trailer has clocked over 7.5 million views since July and the other trailers and clips that have been released are drawing attention.
The film currently has a 6.9 rating on IMDb. While it is too early to judge if that will hold it isn’t down at 4 or lower.
Keanu Reeves’ film base is considered to be a positive.
You can read the entire article here.
Note: I think it is fair to point out that all of the outlets have also conveniently overlooked Universal’s role in the problems faced by the 47 Ronin production. They hired a director with no feature film under his belt and paired him with an inexperienced producer. For all intent purposes the studio was absent in providing any kind of supervision over the director, something that should have been a given considering the film was a big budget tentpole.
Despite the special effects, in an early test screening in May of 2012 a lot of the feed back by the test audience centered on the disappointment that the star of the film was not front and center and didn’t have enough screen time. Granted it was a Japanese story but the domestic audience is not familiar with the Japanese cast and it is not clear why the director and studio thought that limiting their star’s presence was a good idea. The ensuing reshoots to bolster Keanu Reeves’ character and address those problems, led to a delay in the film’s release along with a lot of negative publicity.
Universal seems poised to deny their own culpability and lay the blame else where.