I think, based on that one trailer, we can at least say what should not be. Sailor Moon is NOT suppose to be a late 80's-Early 90's style sitcom with fantasy-style super hero bits on the side. Even if the earlier seasons tend to follow a formula, it's meant to be a serious teen/young adult drama that focuses on the struggle to balance out dual identities and dual fates while the enemy threats and stakes become higher, darker, and more dangerous.
You are right though, for ANY anime-based western movie to be successful, it needs to go out of its way to be as faithful to the source material as possible. And I think and hope that Hollywood is finally understanding that's what the fans want. Most movie producers really don't want to limit themselves to the source material like that, they want to be expressive and make their own thing. And yet, when they do this, their movies are a failure most of the time. Dragonball Evolution is one of the biggest examples of this. It's practically a fluke when something like Bay's Transformers sees any kind of success.
Actually , I love the Bay Transformers for two reasons: It tries to tell a consistent story and two: it is very anime action influenced. Aside from the second film that sucks, the trilogy is very solid as it keeps its story straight and doesn't pull crap and regress it like G1. Ergo, G1 bored me to hell and its film sucks for knowing that NONE of the changes are kept or used in future seasons because of the whining of G1 fans and the anime goes from G1 to Power Rangers and back again.
They should see that with the success of Western comic book properties that are faithful , and yet do their own thing with a MIXTURE of its materials, applying the same logic with anime or any eastern influenced property is tantamount to box office success.
You can deviate from the comics and animation, but it has to be done to keep the spirit of the series and meld the various concepts and artistic views of many years.
It's not that Dragonball and them are not adaptable, it is just that they are not being approached the way they need to. Dragon Ball for instance is the perfect material for Star Wars like adaptation where they can stretch the material due to its amount and if they wanted, DB could be 6 films and DBZ could take 3, but that would be unreasonable.
If it were to be tackled, DB would need to merge the continuities of the past and Z (if implied like the Alien origins, though I hate them a ton) and tell the story as the Asian Superman, a boy who is (supposedly until Z) the last of his kind and was raised with fighting capabilities and un-nuanced with civilization. Not only does it have vibes of the coming to age , but of Tarzan and of other wild child stories the world around. Then when he gets ticked/ sees moon, now you have werewolf legends.
Sailor Moon = Thor. The way Thor was tackled is how Sailor Moon should be as it fits.
Death Note: Have Luke Yagami be a Japanese student in Harvard or Yale , with indirect ties/continuation to the original and who may or may not be Light. Allows for flexibility with the story, but stays true to canon. Near or Mellow take role as the new L ,and by the end of the film , we have cameos of characters from the original as the crime thriller takes apart on two continents.
Bleach: Japanese students who go to International school allow for English speaking and accurate casting. Goes into details of other soul societies in European and other places with Shinigami , but the central part of the story is still the Asianness of the original.
Naruto: Film it like any other ninja film. Unknown actors , stay to plot to the Exams and have showdown with Gaara be the centerfold. Cameos of the Red Cloud black dress people I forgot the name and the major plot element of film 2 is the death of the old hokage and the setup for the third film, which goes into Shippuden.
