95 replies to this topic

[Bon-san]

BTW, I'm not dying to see Colin Salmon as 007. I think he could do it at least as well as half the blokes who've played him so far, but there are a lot of people who could do that.

[Mister Asterix]

I do not care how people felt about anyone feels about whatever role being played by a person of a different race. I care about the role being played as the proper race. Kingsley played Gandhi as an Indian and played Stern as a Jewish man. If he would have played Gandhi as white then I would complain. Zorro and Charlie Chan have usually been played by white men, but they were played as Latino and Chinese respectively.
Carradine played Kwai Chang Cain as Chinese. Linda Hunt played Billy Kwan as a male Chinese/American. Nimoy played Spock as a Vulcan.

None of those bother me. But if some plays Spock as Mongolian, Rocky Balboa as Middle Eastern, or James Bond or Jim West as black, then I complain.

I respect your long history of thoughtful posts, Mr. *, but I find this point of view a bit troubling in that:

Apparently, Anthony Hopkins can legitimately portray a Mexican, but Colin Salmon can't legitimately portray a white man. And why is this? Merely, and only, due to skin color it seems. Is that the only reason Salmon can't be Bond? Because it's more difficult for makeup artists and cameramen to change the appearance of pigmentation in a black person's skin, than it is to do so for a white person? [And possibly, because it's more difficult for Eurocentric attitudes to accept a black playing a white than vice versa?]

I've really thought about this for awhile here, and I've argued it with myself from all angles. And Mr. A's argument [while well-reasoned] is ultimately troubling to me.

[mra]I wouldn

[Robinson]

Quite frankly I'm sick of seeing white roles being taken over blacks!

You have the film "Walking Tall." A true story about a WHITE sheriff who sees the lawless activity going on in his town and decides to fight back. Remember, in real life the Sheriff is white, but nooooo, nowadays he's a black/somoan guy by the name of The Rock.

"Kojak." Starring the Greek Telly Savalas will now be played by the black Ving Rhames in a tv series.

The Freakin' "Honeymooners." Classic tv series from the '50s starring white people has now been blacked into a movie coming out next year.

The list goes on and on...

I'm getting sick and tired of it!

Keep James Bond WHITE!!!!

Keep James Bond White?

You didn't support Everton back in the 70's and 80's did you?

Let me break it down for you:

The way Hollywood works with many of these "high concept" retreads is that a hook is needed to draw fans in. So, in steps The Rock to do WALKING TALL. No, he's not Joe Don Baker but who was going to put butts in the seats to see this flick about a fed up, pot-bellied Southern sherrif who wants to do things his own way? If Triple H was a bigger star and could act, then possibly. Vin Diesel? He's a lighter shade of brown, so you're still pissed off. The Rock had come off of respectable numbers with THE SCORPION KING, so these are the scripts that come his way. Me? I'm still waiting for Steven Segal to star in a remake of Spencer Tracy's BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK.

As for THE HONEYMOONERS, any white actors you bring in are going to be unfairly compared to comic legend Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, etc. The flick will be handicapped. So, bring in Cedric and Mike Epps. You'll get the brothers and the true die-hards in that first weekend. After that, it's all about video and DVDs.

KOJAK? You and I are shaking my head on that one. Michael Chilkis is a star on THE SHIELD and Daniel Benzali from THE PRACTICE maybe to old for the role.

Yeah, I know it's hard that color-blind casting decisions rankle many on and off these boards but for every one of these decisions, many others were made that kept people of color off the big-screen:

* James Mason portraying the Indian(Asian) Captain Nemo in Walt Disney's 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA. Verne had originally envisioned Nemo as Asian.

* Kevin Spacey's character in PLAY IT FORWARD was a Black Vietnam Veteran in the original novel. Eyebrows were raised but the author admitted that the film wouldn't have been bankrolled had Spacey not signed on.

* The original screenplay for THE FULL MONTY called for all of the unemployed male characters/strippers to be Asian and Black.

* Charlton Heston playing a Mexican in Orson Wells' TOUCH OF EVIL.

There's more but it's not really important with what I have to say next...

Colin Salmon was never and would've never been selected to take over the role of 007.

It's a slow month over at EON just as it was a slow month when Brosnan proposed Salmon as Bond on the DAD audio commentary. Folks went wild then, folks are going wild now. Granted, he's done screen tests for potential Bond girls (that's right, envy him) but c'mon. It's too big a risk and too big a casting decision for EON/MGM/SONY/MICROSOFT/STARBUCKS to make.

Now, if they decide to make a feature version of GOLDENEYE: ROGUE AGENT...

[Mister Asterix]

Now, if they decide to make a feature version of GOLDENEYE: ROGUE AGENT...

[mra]Now you

[Roebuck]

Me? I'm still waiting for Steven Segal to star in a remake of Spencer Tracy's BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK.

Shame is that 'Bad Day at Black Rock' is the kind of role Segal would be great for if he hadn't opted to sleepwalk through the last six years of his career. I got my hopes up when he said he was doing a remake of Bob Mitchum's 'The Yakuza', but the producers have dumped the original story and gone for some nonsense involving terrorists and a stolen nuclear device (Yawn).

[Prav_007]

It's a slow month over at EON just as it was a slow month when Brosnan proposed Salmon as Bond on the DAD audio commentary. Folks went wild then, folks are going wild now. Granted, he's done screen tests for potential Bond girls (that's right, envy him) but c'mon.  It's too big a risk and too big a casting decision for EON/MGM/SONY/MICROSOFT/STARBUCKS to make.

Yeah, I totally agree with that, he's good, but no way in this era would that casting be made. I could never see it happening.