hollywoodfail?

[allisnow]

I've seen a lot of talk about 'racebending' in The Last Airbender, but this is the first time I've seen Prince of Persia mentioned vis a vis liberal, enlightened Hollywood casting white actors for 'ethnic roles':

A whitewash for 'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time' and 'The Last Airbender'

Since its release, the video game franchise Prince of Persia has become notable for the acrobatic grace of its dagger-wielding, balloon pants-wearing hero as well as for what the games didn't do: affront gamers of Middle Eastern and Muslim descent with stereotypical depictions of people from the region as terrorists or religious zealots.

Independent filmmaker and blogger Jehanzeb Dar, to name one such player, remembers his favorable first reaction to the swashbuckling action game, which is set amid the sands and ancient cities of Persia (as ancient Iran is known) and follows a hero with a magic sword caught between forces of good and evil. "You could see clearly the protagonist had distinct Middle Eastern features and darker skin," said Dar, 26, who pens the blog Muslim Reverie from Langhorne, Pa. "People could develop some respect for that culture instead of seeing it vilified."

So when Disney studios announced plans for a live-action adaptation of Prince, Dar held out hope it would be a "serious story that would dispel a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions." Then came the bad news regarding "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" (the movie which arrives in theaters on Friday). None of its principle cast members are of Iranian, Middle Eastern or Muslim descent. And playing Dastan, the hero and titular heir to the Persian throne in the $200-million tent-pole film, is none other than Hancock Park's own Swedish-Jewish-American prince, Jake Gyllenhaal.

Personally, I think Gyllenhaal's casting had more to do with the way Hollywood works when casting any movie: the spin the Wheel of Current Celebs and go with whoever the needle lands on. (There are different Wheels for different movie genres and key demographics, of course, otherwise Dastan might have would up being portrayed by Adam Sandler or something. Sorry for the nightmares, PoP fans)

That, or Hollywood is just a bunch of racist bastards. I dunno.

Prince of Persia looks kind of interesting, though, Gyllenhaal notwithstanding. I hope the reviews are decent.

Comments

[queenemiwee.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think Gyllenhaal's casting had more to do with the way Hollywood works when casting any movie: the spin the Wheel of Current Celebs and go with whoever the needle lands on.

Totally agree. It's really all about money. Jake Gyllenhaal is much more marketable than an unknown Iranian/Middle Eastern unknown actor. Hollywood seems to really only stay true to their liberal priorities during fundraising/campaigning.. but when push comes to shove, money trumps anything else.. even their liberal agenda.

[allisnow.livejournal.com]

Totally agree. It's really all about money. Jake Gyllenhaal is much more marketable than an unknown Iranian/Middle Eastern unknown actor.

Right-o.

Of course, from a marketing standpoint, there was no reason not to cast an Iranian/Middle Eastern woman in the female lead.

As long as she had a nice rack, of course.

Priorities.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Couldn't have said it better.

I think it looks like an interesting movie; I couldn't care less if the actors were red, yellow or blue (I liked Avatar, too), but Hollywood knows what draws and what doesn't, and that trumps political correctness any day.

[tielan]

You're late to the party, actually. The commentary about Gyllenhaal being cast as a character who is, by definition, racially Iranian was months ago.

This is just the first time mainstream media commented on it, as compared to the blogosphere.

There's less outrage around it compared with Avatar: The Last Airbender because Prince of Persia has always been 'vaguely Middle Eastern' - architecture and clothing style, mostly - while Avatar: TLA was deliberately designed and written with specific non-Western cultures in mind. The written script in the show, the architectural styles, the clothing, and a great deal of the culture in the animated series has a corresponding Earth culture referent, which was turned into "generic Eastern mythic fantasy" for the purposes of the movie, rather than representing the actual Earth culture from which it came.

As for Hollywood being non-racist, I'd be interested in seeing when the first mainstream observation that Mickey Rourke is not Mongoloid comes up.

[allisnow.livejournal.com]

Well, I sort of meant that this was the first time I had seen the MSM comment on it. I figured that someone, somewhere in the blogosphere had commented on the outrageous outrage :)