It doesn’t work. After all, if they made a film about a 19th century novel about a tribe in some part of Africa and some characters who members of the tribe were white, you’d spend the whole film wondering how they got there and the significance of their presence.
Some thing with having black actors play what were obviously white characters in a white society: you’d wonder how they got there, why they were there, and what it meant.
If the entire play or film is done with an all-black cast, simply because, say, it’s being performed in a place with no white residents or actors, that obviously is not a problem. Suspension of belief is the whole thing with dramas.
But the dramatization of a novel set in an exclusively European environment where the presence of other races or non-Europeans would have had a reason and required an explanation cannot casually throw in those characters without raising distracting questions in the mind of the spectator.
Next they’ll be doing Casablanca in blackface.
“...required an explanation cannot casually throw in those characters without raising distracting questions in the mind of the spectator.”
Absolutely. The distraction is overwhelming and completely prevents the suspension of disbelief.
You would never be allowed to make a film with a White person as part of an African tribe. It's okay for them to do that to a story that is filled with white people; but, never the reverse. You will never see the reverse.
The only thing we can do to protest, is not give them any money -- do not view this film.
I often wonder why the black community cannot come up with stories of their own. Why do they persist in ruining our stories. I suppose the answer is in the question.