I ran across your 2007 article about Japanese actors in American film. It struck a chord. I have just finished polishing a screenplay that I am ready to shop. Ideally, the movie would be produced by an American company and a Japanese company and open simultaneously in both countries. (stick with me; I’m getting there) I am just beginning to identify production companies in both countries that are interested in movies that cross cultures. I am also trying to identify a likely young Japanese-American actor who could play the role of my 20-year old lead. He has to be Japanese-American (not Chinese-American or Vietnamese-American or Korean-American, etc.) since he must speak Japanese with an American accent. Actually, he doesn’t speak any Japanese until he goes to Japan for the first time at age 20. I’m just beginning the promotion process.

I hope you have kept up your interest in Japanese actors in American film. If you have any suggestions or leads for companies or actor, I would be most grateful to hear them. In fact, I would like to get a good, promising actor on board early. If I can interest an actor in the story and the part, this would be enormously useful in attracting a production company.

The screenplay is titled “Butterfly’s Child”. The premise: Whatever happened to the child of Madame Butterfly and Lt. Pinkerton. The movie begins where Puccini’s opera ends.

Harlan