What I am saying and have said since my initial post is the Halle Berry character is original. And her Catwoman bears little to no resemblance to the Selina Kyle character. How many times do I have to repeat that? The Halle film is a little unique in terms of using a familiar name, the name Catwoman isn't made up for the film, but the Patience Price character is, which pretty much renders naming it Catwoman moot, since a lot of people associate the character with Selina Kyle. She is a new character and her Catwoman a new heroine. The Patience Price character with some tweaks could've just as easily been turned into Vixen. I mean, now that the comic book version sort of looks like Halle and is a model, the Catwoman film might've worked better as a Vixen film. So I think Catwoman, despite the familiar name, is part of a pattern of making superhero movies, with black main characters, outside of established black comic book characters. There was no Patience Price in comic books before Halle's Catwoman, and to my knowledge there was no PP after the film came out, except for the likely comic book adaptation. As for the old show, was it ever portrayed that Batman called the Catwomen by their real names or actually went out to discover their identities? I don't think he ever did that. Prince of Persia example was not about ethnicity, it was about cross marketing. And using wholly original characters might make it harder to cross market material, or build on stuff already created. Sometimes I would like to see more blacks and other non-white characters actually headline comic book films and not just be sidekicks, comic relief, etc. If you think that's complaining,that's your right. But even you can't deny the dearth of non-white leads for superhero films, despite a decent number of non-white superheroes at both major comic book companies, during this comic book movie boom. If you think I'm 'complaining' for pointing that out, that's your right. But it doesn't change the fact, nor does it do nothing to address some concerns that I and others share about this issue. I would like to see movies in which kids who are not white males can see people who look like them saving the world sometimes too. I hope the SHIELD film gets made but there are many fanboys, generally white I'm assuming, who are probably still griping about Sam Jackson being Fury. Just like there is some grumbling about Idris Elba in the Thor film. Though I'm got a good suspicion that Scarlett Johannsen will be playing just as major a role as Fury in a SHIELD film, but beggars can't be choosy. And Don Cheadle has already stated that War Machine will not be getting a solo deal or his own series. Regarding other black heroes: Luke Cage is in development hell, there appear to be no plans to resurrect Blade, and I've heard grumbles about Black Panther, but nothing definite. So how exactly is that change at Marvel? Don't know if Falcon will be in the Captain America movies, Fury will be in the first, and I'm assuming Falcon will probably be in the second. So, outside of Fury (a white character made black), there's one potentially definite film with a black lead since Blade Trinity. That's a lot of change.
Pretty sure "Kitka" and "Minerva" were fake names and not presented as Catwomans actual identity. "White" and "Persian" are not mutually exclusive. Romero was the weakest bit of casting of the four main Batman villians. Gorshin, Meredith and Newmar were about as close to perfect as you can get. IIRC, Spawn, Steel and War-Machine are all black comic book heroes who have made the leap from comics to the big screen more or less intact. (YMMV)
Organized boycotts are already underway, apparently. Race is always a very sensitive issue, especially in regards to Hollywood, which rarely gets it "right" depending on who you ask--why is a person of this ethnicity cast for a certain role when it "should" be a person of that ethnicity. In the case of The Last Airbender, many feel that an Asian actor should have been cast in the lead role because of the character's similiarity to a Shaolin Monk, even though the movie takes place on a different world than ours. I can understand and even sympathize with the frustration, but I can also understand the Hollywood mentality too and it isn't always about casting the "right" person for the role as it is about casting the person directors and producers feel best completes their particular vision (for good or for ill)...
Well said. Probably the only people that would clamor for a super-hero to have his ethnicity changed would be white people anyway. To be precise I mean the only people that would ask for it. I,as well as many others , probably wouldn't have any problem with them really changing it. Like Nick Fury.
^^ I more or less agree; I was in fact more interested in the poll than the thread. Then I forgot to add the poll. D'oh!
NOT being a Marvel fan but wasn't Nick a Caucasian in the comics? Hence, why put a Television production up against a theatrical one? I feel that it was wrong to cast him as afro-American.
Since when did that happen? All through the "catch-up" reads I have ever read he was forgive the term....white.
Leave established characters as they are. If you want a character of a specific ethinicity then make a new one up or use an existing one.
It's not that Spider-man couldn't be represented as such in an alternate universe. However, he was never really portrayed as such in the comic books. Personally, I don't think it is a race thing either. That's like having a non American play Captain America. Or having a non caucasian European play Bond. It just is not what people can imagine or envision. It has nothing to do with prejudice. But rather what the character has been defined as (already) within the industry for so long.
I would be interested to see if this could work having a black man play spiderman. But the person would have very big shoes to fill after having Tobey Maguire play the role for so long. Plus like you said Mr Sloan it was not written in comics and it would seem very different to have someone from another race play the character. I really think they should leave the spiderman installiments alone and be tahankful it has lasted so long.
In the regular "Earth-616" continuity, Colonel Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. is white, as he always has been. His appearance was based on various popular actors at the time of his creation in the 1960's. In the "Ultimate" universe - a newer, rebooted continuity designed to allow the retelling of classic stories mixed in with new ones without the burden of decades of continuity - General Nick Fury is black and his appearance is based directly on Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson gave The Ultimates (the Ultimate universe equivalent of The Avengers) artist David Finch written permission to do so.
I never knew there was a japanese spiderman I just watched the clip it looked interesting but l still think we are better off leaving the spiderman movies alone If tobey decided to come back for spiderman 4 l would be excited. Because this is what made this bloke a star and to change that would be terrible and it would also take a while to get used to someone new taking over the role.