Rinko Kikuchi
In December 2010, the studio announced that the film would be produced and released in 3D. Between March and April 2011, five Japanese actors were cast alongside Reeves: Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Rinko Kikuchi, Kou Shibasaki and Jin Akanishi; according to "Variety", Universal chose them in order to make the film's story more authentic rather than choose actors recognizable in the United States. Universal provided Rinsch with an initial production budget of despite his complete lack of feature film experience, which led to "The Hollywood Reporter" considering it to be a "large-scale, downright risky" move.