I've BEEN saying they should use relative unknowns (white or black) to play prominent roles which will ultimately jump-start their careers. Mark Hamill, for instance, was chosen by George Lucas to play Luke Skywalker in the then-risky project "Star Wars." Hamill had only had a modest career to that point, but took the role and became a star in that universe. Although his career was plagued with typecasting for years thereafter, at least it was attempted. As Jamal once stated on here, Hollywood is either not able or not attempting to nurture ANY young black male actor with REAL talent into a long-term career. Strangely enough, neither does it seem like any prominent black male actor (Denzel, Sam Jackson) is doing that either. But that must be the way to go moving forward.
Great points. The problem still is that the image of a black male as a superhero, even fighting for truth and the American way, is still something I'm seeing that alot of white boys out there can't take. And studios just aren't going to put that kind of money and energy into such a righteous project because of it's potentially powerful influence.
Because the dream-team X-men and Charles Xavier are fighting for the "good" existence, as mutants alongside human beings. TV imagery always portrays the black male as the one who constantly challenges societies rules and tends to work outside the realm of a team. If there ever are black mutants, they are usually with Magneto or on their own fighting against humans. Storm was the exception because she is a black female, conveniently from the african continent, whose powers are just good enough to not scare people off. But to have two black X-men at the same time??? No. That breaks their race rules.
yeah really but if they need someone robbing a liquor store, selling crack, or just beating someone silly for no apparent reason, other than GP, they'll draw in a black guy.
LOL! I have to stop right there. I knew about a lot of the controversy and problems behind the scenes for this movie but I never knew that Singleton's first choice was Don Cheadle. Oh, God what a joke. Again I LOVE Don Chealde. He is one of the best actors in the world and from all reports a cool guy. He typically appears in decent/good films. But how on fucking Earth could Singleton consider him suitable for Shaft?!? You know? The same guy who has a song with the lyrics "who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks"? Yeah, that guy? Now does Don Cheadle in any way represent that? Sex machine?? Does Cheadle pass the eye test for that even before the movie/story tries to sell you on his character being an alpha type like that? Get real. One can be kinda short and get away with that. One could be kind of frail-looking (skinny with no muscular definition) and get away with that. One could be average in looks and get away with that. But one can't be all three and still play the role of a tough, ass-kicking private eye who can bed all the women he wants....and please them to boot. Fucking Don Cheadle? What crack was Singleton on? Hey, Sam Jackson was far from perfect too IMO but at least he's...I don't know...tall. And when he wants to he can have a bit of a sexy presence on screen. This is the point I'm making about the low standards black men obviously have of themselves. No other race of men in the world would take an iconic, tough and sexually driven character of their own ethnicity and cast a dude who isn't great looking or at the very least someone whom the female audience don't love to look at. White dudes certainly won't do it. Nor Asian males, Hispanic males, Arabic males, etc. Only black men would settle for Don Cheadle to be their sex symbol. Isn't that sort of like white men casting Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman or perhaps Adrien Brody as James Bond? (note: again I love Cheadle. He was the perfect choice for Mouse in "Devil In A Blue Dress"; simply electric for that role. But Shaft was not right for him. Thank God the exec said "no", but of course he only did so because he thought Cheadle was not a big enough star. Seriously if Singleton wanted to cast anyone from his "Rosewood" film to play Shaft I would have had more respect if he had gone with Ving Rhames, although he wasn't ideal for the part either). Now maybe some think that Richard Roundtree isn't all that but for the 70s he was just perfect and had the right look and build. Also one needs to remember that in the 70s Hollywood wasn't so preoccupied with their leading men looking like pretty boys as they are now.
I absolutely agree with everything you said there, and I'm not disagreeing with you, but for the sake of those that may not know, I just want to further point out that Cheadle is actually fairly muscular. He's not at all the right body shape or type for Shaft, not in the least, I don't disagree. I'm just pointing out that for other roles that might require a smaller but defined man, he'd work:
Jamal Spunky and Hellspawn breaks it down again! But for all the Bishop love, yes he IS black in a since, but he is a Austrailian Aborigione (and half-white to boot), not a African-descend character. Unless they retconned and/or ditched his orgins, you have to scratch him off the list and see how many AUTHENTIC African-descendanted black males you have on X's team or in the X-men mythos for that matter... Can you think of any??????? Apocalypse???? Uhh...Sunspot???? Prodigy - the only one I could think of.
I say Henry Simmons for Luke Cage. I don't know about his acting abilities (hopefully it couldn't be any worse then Michael Jai WHite's) but he has the look and build for him. http://www.tvboyfriends.com/wp-cont...kaboutTVHotties_13162/henry_simmons_99[1].jpg But he was born in Middle America, not some boy who was born in a majority black poor area like Tyrese. Maybe that's why JS considered him for the role, since he would be basically playing himself.
My hunch is that they will cast Eva Mendes for Jessica JOnes, she is the designated non-black woman actress for black male actors. Regardless if she is truely right for the role or not. I don't think that racist white males would be a problem COMPARED to his BLACK WOMEN fanbase who, I would dare say, has even MORE power in determing who gets casted opposite to him. You and I could name numerous examples to this, not to mention that there were minor complaints about TISHA CAMPELL being casted for the Martin Sitcom. If they cast a bonafide All-American white female for the role LIKE THEY SHOULD, then that black actor would have that STIGMA of having kissing "dat white gurl" not only in mainstream, but in black majority filming as well. Think of why Tyler Perry hasn't casted the likes of Taye Diggs or Wesley but he can cast SHARON NEAL to play love interests of black men. Also to further play on the double-standards, just for the hell of it, a IRON FIST movie is comming out. He will be played by WHite-Korean actor who played Darth Maul (forgot his name) and the producers are CLAMORING for MYSTY KNIGHT to be his love interest. Now if a bw get casted and not a ww for the Luke Cage movie, then I will NOT see both of those flicks regardless of how good they were.
Oh and about the Spawn movie, the producers themselves, said that he HAD to change Terry Fitzgerald's race because it would be "too many" black characters in the movie. According to them, three black main characters in a movie would be designated as a "black movie" and you know that we can't have that. Todd McFarlene gave in too pressure, just like any other person who is below the almighty producers would do. But the movie flopped anyways... SOme of these producers are so fucking chickenshit and racist that they have even suggested that if they have the right's to Neil Gaimen's Anansi BOys, that they would change the main characters to WHITE or leave the magical element out of the movie to "applease" middle-America. That's why Gaiman kept the rights to himself. They have blocked Danny Glover's Haitian slave project, Denzel's Hannibal project, Will Smith's The Last Pharoah, and a live action King Tut movie starring some black kid from some soap opera. What blacks need is our own version of Robert Rodriguez who could greenlight films themelves. IF they can pool their resources together, then I could see that happen, but until they do, then we are stuck at feeding the crumbs that Hollywierd throw at us.
His name is Spike Lee. Unfortunately most black folks would rather support a Tyler Perry movie than anything historical.
Only problem is that Spike just can't make a movie. He has to somehow slip in his personal issues/political beliefs in there somehow. No comment on Tyler "Yes Ma'am" Perry.
I beg to differ. "Inside Man" was a straight Hollywood thriller and his biggest-grossing film. And even if he does so what? Woody Allen has been making the same movie for decades now with his personal issues/beliefs (old Jew gets with young, sexy Gentile woman) and they still give him money to make more.
I've heard good things about Inside Man. Funny how that works about Woody Allen. No one ever mention that. I've read various reviews of Spike movies from black folk and they all mention that he does nothing but sermonize and spout his own personal issues (daddy issued, hatred of WW, etc.). They also complained that he would lose track of the story leaving the audience unsure of what's going on. So on and so on...
When Spike did "She's Gotta Have It" in '86 they were calling him the black Woody Allen. The greatness and weakness of Spike is that he challenges his audiences. Most black folks just want a minstrel show gospel play or something simple. I actually thought "Inside Man" was a good move for Spike and wish he'd do more like that. But he followed it up with the New Orleans documentary for HBO. No commercial instincts, that guy.
He has a few good years left. We don't know how to challenge ourselves. Movies and music. Latinos seem to appreciate true Black music more than we do. All those young knuckleheads know is the wannabe gangbangers.
Being a kid back in the 313, you would always see commercials and hear radio for whatever "critically acclaimed" gospel play was showing in town. Usually at the Masonic Temple or Fisher Theater. Now back to having inept black actors play action heroes. [youtube]zRfCmyGi14k[/youtube]
inside man, imo, was very left-fieldish for spike lee after growing up on jungle fever, do the right thing, 'white' men can't jump, i've came to expect a certain type of movie from him.. then he threw this out.. he also had another one with anna paquin and barry pepper.. again, not exactly what you expect from him, but I guess even directors have to be versatile.
You got to be kidding me. Spike Lee doesn't have money or has as much industry clout as Robert Rodriguez. RR has SCI-FI and action films that target ALL of AMerica. The only film that can touch his films that target all of AMerica is Inside Man. RR does films based on comics and SCI-FI. He casts mostly Latino actors and his films are for all of America. There isn't a black director/producer that is on the level of RR or Michael Bay, even if those two don't make masterpieces.
