Captain America movie rumor. And the role has been offered to...

[Galactus]

George W Carver and MLK are real people that are icons of history. We are talking about fictional characters. There is no integrity to the characters. They have all changed over the years. Superman today is not the same as he was before, cause you would never see Supes saying, racists statements, but he did in the past.

I have no problem with someone white playing Shaft or any other made up character. Why should I? It might not be what I would do but it doesn't mean someone else doesn't have an artistic take on it.

 

[captcalhoun]

but, the thing is, Sam Jackson as Nick Fury works, because Mark Millar reinvented the character that way.

if someone could reinvent Cap as a Black guy in a way that works, i say more power to their elbow.

however, making it work is the thing that i don't think can be done.

to me (a non-American), Captain America will always be a WWII super-soldier who gets frozen and wakes up decades later to take on America's new enemies and that only realistically (ha!) works if he's a white guy.

 

[stonester1]

George W Carver and MLK are real people that are icons of history. We are talking about fictional characters. There is no integrity to the characters.

I have no problem with someone white playing Shaft or any other made up character. Why should I? It might not be what I would do but it doesn't mean someone else doesn't have an artistic take on it.

On the other hand, that's how you end up with nigh unrecognizable, crappy, failure at the box office comic book adaptations. Some auteur who doesn't care about the property, why it's a success, more concerned with his/her "vision".

And along those lines, there have been MANY successful, even good "historical" films that took liberty with the facts of history. If that's the case, and race isn't sacred, and some artist had a vision, why NOT change the race of a historical character?

Hey, if it's all about the vision thing...

 

[PKerr]

Hey kids dija hear the latest announcement?

Good Times, The Jeffersons and Sanford and Son are the latest TV shows being made into Movies.

Oh BTW they all have an entire white cast.
I don't know what they plan to have the new white George Jefferson call the new black Tom Willis. Gosh I sure hope it's not some sort of racial slur.

 

[Aragorn]

Russell Crowe and Diane Lane as The Jeffersons is racist and discriminatory.

Cedric the Entertainer, Mike Epps, Gabrielle Union and Regina Hall as The Honeymooners is not.

 

[PKerr]

Russell Crowe and Diane Lane as The Jeffersons is racist and discriminatory.

Cedric the Entertainer, Mike Epps, Gabrielle Union and Regina Hall as The Honeymooners is not.

Now you're getting it.

 

[Aragorn]

But that's basically what I said earlier!

(And FYI to anyone reading, that WAS the cast of The Honeymooners movie.)

 

[flandry84]

Surely I can't be the only person to detest Will Smith.(okay,detest is probably too strong),but man ,I cannot in my mind,"buy" him in any role I have seen him in.
BTW,the same goes for Tom Cruise,Harrison Ford and worst of all Tommy Lee Stoneface....sorry Jones.

 

[Galactus]

George W Carver and MLK are real people that are icons of history. We are talking about fictional characters. There is no integrity to the characters.

I have no problem with someone white playing Shaft or any other made up character. Why should I? It might not be what I would do but it doesn't mean someone else doesn't have an artistic take on it.

On the other hand, that's how you end up with nigh unrecognizable, crappy, failure at the box office comic book adaptations. Some auteur who doesn't care about the property, why it's a success, more concerned with his/her "vision".

And along those lines, there have been MANY successful, even good "historical" films that took liberty with the facts of history. If that's the case, and race isn't sacred, and some artist had a vision, why NOT change the race of a historical character?

Hey, if it's all about the vision thing...

The 90's Captain America was true to the character but it was bad. What was the excuse for that? If we are making just a movie then I have no problem with them changing anybody, if you are trying to make an accurate record true to the times, then that is different.

Why it is so hard to separate real people from fantasy people? These people are made up. They are not real. What is the problem with changing them?

 

[Pensive]

Yes, let's have Shaft played by Adam Baldwin.

Robert Downey, Jr. should play Shaft.

In the blackface makeup from Tropic Thunder.

Not offensive.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

to me (a non-American), Captain America will always be a WWII super-soldier who gets frozen and wakes up decades later to take on America's new enemies and that only realistically (ha!) works if he's a white guy.

It also works thematically. Cap was the super soldier created to fight the "master race." Physically, he was the Nazi ideal. Ideologically, he was it's antithesis.

 

[PKerr]

Yes, let's have Shaft played by Adam Baldwin.

Robert Downey, Jr. should play Shaft.

In the blackface makeup from Tropic Thunder.

Not offensive.

And there was an initial uproar of RDJ playing a back man before the facts were even out.

 

[stonester1]

The 90's Captain America was true to the character but it was bad. What was the excuse for that? If we are making just a movie then I have no problem with them changing anybody, if you are trying to make an accurate record true to the times, then that is different.

No, it's not different, as I already pointed out why.

As to why that Captain America was bad, number of reasons. I didn't say that mucking up the character/property was the only way to trash a comic book adaptation. But it is definitely one way.

Why it is so hard to separate real people from fantasy people? These people are made up. They are not real. What is the problem with changing them?

Because, if it is an established character, loved by millions, then that character/property already works. The idea that you can somehow do better than what is established rarely works.

It only, in general, works with more obscure characters, or properties that weren't that good originally, such as Battlestar Galactica.

 

[CaptainCanada]

(Oh, and if we followed your hyperbolic fear of ever changing a character to update them from their origins in a racist time period to a more contemporary one, we would never have gotten Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. And Sam Jackson is Nick Fury.)

I don't like Jackson as Fury (never found his schtick very interesting), but it works with Fury because the modern version of Fury really has nothing to do with his World War II career; his MU role is as a superspy who is the interlocutor between superheroes and the government. Making him an immortal WWII veteran is really outside his core role.

 

[Galactus]

It only, in general, works with more obscure characters, or properties that weren't that good originally, such as Battlestar Galactica.

So if you don't like the original property it is ok to change it, but if you do then it is forbidden. No double standard there at all.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Yes, let's have Shaft played by Adam Baldwin.

Robert Downey, Jr. should play Shaft.

In the blackface makeup from Tropic Thunder.

Not offensive.

Wil Smith will payback Downey by playing Cap in whiteface.

to me (a non-American), Captain America will always be a WWII super-soldier who gets frozen and wakes up decades later to take on America's new enemies and that only realistically (ha!) works if he's a white guy.

It also works thematically. Cap was the super soldier created to fight the "master race." Physically, he was the Nazi ideal. Ideologically, he was it's antithesis.

They could go the Jesse Owens route and make Cap the physical anthithesis of the Nazi ideal, and that could work thematically, too. In fact, it makes more sense - I doubt the original Cap being blond was due to anything more than the fact that Americans thought blond = hero back then, too.

But like I said before: traditional Cap comes first. Then we can get cute.

 

[TheBrew]

Yes, let's have Shaft played by Adam Baldwin.

Robert Downey, Jr. should play Shaft.

In the blackface makeup from Tropic Thunder.

Not offensive.

Wil Smith will payback Downey by playing Cap in whiteface.

Now I actually want him to do it. And then have him in whiteface opposite Downey in the Avengers movie.

 

[Pensive]

Wil Smith will payback Downey by playing Cap in whiteface.

TOO-SHAY!

Now I actually want him to do it. And then have him in whiteface opposite Downey in the Avengers movie.

Oh god stop the plot bunnies!!!!!!!!!

 

[Bad Bishop]

I'm sure your question is rhetorical. Anyway, political correctness isn't a good enough reason to change a cultural icon like Superman.

What does political correctness have to do with Superman or any other character.

It's a way of dressing up what's just a "macaroni-and-cheese" complaint to sound more substantial and serious.

Says the guy who is now quoting Russell Brand in his signature.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

In all seriousness though, it would seem that the most successful superhero films financially have also been the ones that stuck closest to their source material (or at least what most of the fans consider to be faithful at least). I would hope that isn't lost on those at Marvel but then again look at some of the movies that get this wrong so you never know but I would think they'd be hesitant to deviate too much.

Well, the 1990 Captain America movie was very close to the original material (except for making the Red Skull Italian for some reason). But it was awful in many ways (despite some good bits).

True, but that doesn't really have anything to do with my statement.