'The Last Airbender' is genetically engineered for me. I love martial arts. I study it. The movie's based on a lot of Buddhist and Hindu philosophy. I was raised Hindu.
Anime is intended to have ambiguous features. That's part of the art form.
Movies will end up being this esoteric art form, where only singular people will put films out in a small group of theaters.
When I was a kid, I had two great guilty pleasures. One was horror movies and the other was martial arts movies.
You don't get to celebrate yourself unless you risk being mocked or rejected. As an artist, you cannot play it safe. You just can't.
Movie making is not like other art forms, like painting, or writing a novel, because that can be digested or interpreted... It takes two years to make each one of these, and it's always judged on money.
I've never had an issue with studios. I believe in them as true creative partners in the process.