The Legend of Korra

Pacific Islander or Native American is probably the best choice. Of course there are very few of those actors in Hollywood so any person they cast would have to be an unknown.

Honestly I think the buff aspect would probably be the trickiest part. Not everyone is willing to go through the effort required to get that toned.

It's not like she's huge. Building up that much muscle shouldn't be too hard with the right training regimen.

It's unfilmable if M. Night's attempt was any indication.

An Avatar film series is perfect doable. M Night just isn't a good director.

It's not. Not any kind of indication, I mean. He overreached, trying to make a big-budget fantasy epic despite never having really tried anything like it before, and blew his budget before he reached the halfway mark. I maintain that a good live-action adaptation is entirely possible. It's just not very likely, Hollywood being what it is at the moment. It requires a level of risk and boldness that we're probably not going to see in studios for a while to come.

Oddly enough, though, I can imagine something set in the same universe with an all-new cast— one of the previous Avatars, maybe, or just a collection of benders and non-benders doing their own thing far from Republic City— that could actually be more successful. Less baggage, less expectation— less risk. And more room to innovate.

M. Night Shyamalan's not a bad director, or at least he wasn't. He seems to have lost the subtle touch that made his first few films work somewhere along the way, though.

Dream-casting Korra, though, my mind immediately went to Auli'i Cravalho too, in that she's an actress of colour and she's not too old. But yeah, I'd rather see Korra go to an unknown who absolutely looks and sounds the part, rather than someone established who only halfway gets there.

edited 4th Jan '17 12:53:19 PM by Unsung

Like, check women's UFC for someone with acting chops maybe.

No one really that can act.

I'm not sure if anyone in the UFC is young enough.

Eh, Korra is a case where an actress in her early-mid twenties would be justified to play a teenager, considering how she looks and all.

Just pick a buff actress in her mid twenties, and de-age her with CGI.

Or, you know, pick a young actress who is ready to go through whatever all male actors routinely go through for action roles.

Like Chris Evans for Captain America, or Christian Bale all the freaking time.

edited 3rd Jan '17 1:03:51 AM by Julep

I remember Emily Coligado, who played Francis's wife Piama who went toe to toe with Lois on Malcolm In The Middle

edited 3rd Jan '17 8:05:27 AM by blkwhtrbbt

I hear the actress in Edge of Tomorrow got swole just for that role.

Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2.

Although apparently her training regimen was really unhealthy

Yes and no. While the budget problem is responsible for many of the film's flaws, Shyamalan's directing style is equally to blame. It's not that he's a bad director. It's that he has a certain style, and that style does not lend itself well to an Avatar adaptation.

The budget is not to blame for the characters all being emotionless cardboard cutouts who talk like aliens attempting to understand human behavioral patterns. Watch any Shyamalan film. They always talk like that. Every single one of them. Even in the successful movies like Sixth Sense, the characters are emotionless cardboard cutouts who communicate entirely in poignant whispers.

It's his thing. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. But it was never going to work for Avatar, even if the effects had been amazing.

That's my thought too. Bad effects just made a bad movie even worse.

I wonder how he'd do adapting something like a Brecht play, where everything's supposed to be as wooden and un-immersive as possible.

Yeah, well, that part's certainly true too. ATLA has a pretty vivid emotional landscape, and that's definitely not MNS's forte. He was just the wrong director for this movie on all kinds of levels. But getting the right emotional performance is the kind of thing where you could (potentially) learn as you go. If you had the time and budget for multiple takes, say. Not saying someone else couldn't have done better all around, but running out of time and money didn't do Night any favours either.

edited 4th Jan '17 9:36:30 PM by Unsung

I decided to rewatch Korra because I haven't seen it again since it finished airing. I just finished rewatching the end of book 2, which is good because 3 and 4 are so much better in comparison. Book 1 had an interesting premise but poor execution. Book 2 was hindered by the Makorra romance arc. Admittedly, this was a problem in the first book, but their relationship wasn't as developed at that point. Beginnings is definitely the best episode in the first two seasons.

Some korrasami

At one point, I'd really love to develop that whole Avatar +10000 years in the future plot bunny I had. I really like the idea that Iroh, when he isn't a Genius Loci in his own often manifests as his jolly old self, but transforms into a gigantic dragon when pushed.

edited 22nd Jan '17 6:38:55 PM by SantosLHalper

How come the inhabitants of Kyoshi Island tend to have blue clothes (and many of them have blue eyes?) rather than the green clothes and eyes more typical of Earth Kingdom citizens?

Maybe they're descended of a Water Nation tribe that colonized the islands near the Earth Kingdom and intermarried?

Kinda how Pacific Islanders and Native Americans share ancestry from ancient East Asia.

That would make sense. The Foggy Swamp Tribe are descended from the Water Tribe and they are light-skinned, so it is believable that the Kyoshi Island inhabitants could have Water Tribe ancestry.