Generally true, but has no relevance whatsoever, to what I'm talking about here.
Michael B. Jordan as the Man Of Steel?
- Thread starter Mage
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What's interesting is back in the 90's or maybe early when they were talking about doing a Superman one of my personal choices was Denzel Washington. I know he made more sense to me than Nick Cage. He in most of his roles has a strong moral code to them. A inner strenght. Of course back then I had felt racism was less of a issue which makes feel naive after Trump won. I do agree you can do a story that isn't about racism but can it be done in current political climate? Especially if Trump wins again. Jason
Except for every comic, television and movie interpretation of him since 1938
Um....no
"Fleming decided that Bond should resemble both American singer Hoagy Carmichael and himself and in Casino Royale, Vesper Lynd remarks, "Bond reminds me rather of Hoagy Carmichael, but there is something cold and ruthless." Likewise, in Moonraker, Special Branch Officer Gala Brand thinks that Bond is "certainly good-looking ... Rather like Hoagy Carmichael in a way. That black hair falling down over the right eyebrow. Much the same bones. But there was something a bit cruel in the mouth, and the eyes were cold."
The books were quite specific about what James Bond looked like. With Superman it's even worse because the image in the public's mind of the character is so ingrained that changing it would only alienate the very people you are trying to get to see your movie. The box office of Black Panther in contrast to Fantastic Four shows that the public is willing to accept black superheros, but not so accepting of established characters being changed.
Not to mention passages like the incredibly racist dialogue in Live and Let Die. So racist that even by the standards of the day it was heavily edited for the American version of the novel.
It wasn't just Johnny Storms that was changed, they also changed Reed Richards. This created a backlash against the movie before it was even released which hurt ticket sales. Of course the movie was bad , but the point I was making was that alienating the very audience that you need to come and see your movie is not a tactic for success. Casting Jordan as Superman is like trying to cast Danny DeVito as Batman.It doesn't work. Either cast Superman right or make your own character.
If those are the best examples you've got, the books don't sound very specific at all. People of different races can still easily have close enough features to fit a description that says nothing more than 'he reminds me rather of' or he 'was rather like'. Just last week I saw a picture of John Legend that for all the world made me think of George W. Bush.
The cast was the absolute least of that movie's problems and had nothing to do with it's failure. I ndidn't have any problem with the casting and was initially impressed with the outside the box nature of the cast. It was the execution of the story that did the movie in.
If we have to go all the way back to 1946 to find an example of Superman confronting racism in a significant and meaningful way, surely it's overdue.
I'd watch it.
Then I really wanna see who they get for the Penguin.
Christian Bale.
DeVito would have been more believable than Michael Keaton.
The image of Bond in the books did look like Hoagy Carmichael -- who looked like David Niven, who looked like Ian Flemng, which is really who the literary character was modeled after. Fleming had done a stint with some branch of intelligence in Britain before writing the Bond books. Bond was only described with white features because, coincidentally, Fleming had white features.
None of this means squat with respect to Bond or Superman having to be a particular race. Both are fictional characters whose race and looks are NOT integral to who the characters are. We all know that Superman was drawn as white in the comic just as Bond was described in the books with white features, but there is nothing about who the characters are that demands either be drawn as white or played by a white actor.
If you have some reason Bond or Superman need to be shown as white, other than because that is the way they were originally presented, please let me know.
As someone has already astutely pointed out, the FF movie didn't fail because Michael B. Jordan was cast as Johnny Storm. What you suggest here is pretty much an alt-right talking point, that movies with POC or women in non-traditional roles, or LGBTQ characters, in roles that were previously manned by white men, will bomb.
If it is a good movie, then only the racist and intolerant will stay away and there still aren't enough of them in America to sink a good movie.
Umm...no.
I'd believe DeVito as Bat-Mite, though.
Sorry, I know there is a nostalgia for Batman 89, but I saw this in the theatres. Although I've grown to appreciate its positive qualities over time the worst thing about the movie for me was easily Keaton. He didn't look or act like he was capable of changing a tire, let alone being Batman. His Batsuit was horrible, designed to compensate for the actor's physical stature, that created a type of Batman that relied heavily on technology rather than his innate physiology. As Bruce Wayne, Keaton just missed the mark as well. The whole plot of revealing his identity to Vale was poorly done.
So, I was exaggerating about DeVito but not by much I don't think.
Michael Keaton: still the best Batman ever.
It doesn't have to have anything to do with racism, some of us are just traditionalists. Heck, I was pissed when the new Galactica changed Col. Tigh to a white guy, and that's a muuuuch lesser 'established" character than Supes or Bond.
Yet, Superman has went through a lot of changes over the decades. If the character now was the same exact character Schuster and Siegel created all those years ago, I might be able to see the "traditionalist" angle, but he isn't.
Since the character has changed so much since its inception, I'm more interested in the modern version giving me a good story with a good actor in the role. I don't care what his skin color is.
