More Hollywood Remakes Cast Minorities

Yahoo! News ^ | June 8, 2005 | ERIN TEXEIRA

[Clemenza]

James Earl Jones and Leslie Uggams headline "On Golden Pond."

I preferred "On Golden Blonde" myself.

[Miss Marple]

While Hollywood and the film schools are congratulating themselves about cross-casting, perhaps they would like to explain the lack of new, original screenplays and the dependence on re-makes and sequels, instead.

The absolute worst is the remake of what was a classic children's movie, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" with that creepy Johnny Depp in the Gene Wilder title role.

[pepperhead]

I wish Hollywood stop it with all the remakes already.

[I still care]

"he said actors of color need to be cast in more thoughtful films that tell culturally specific stories."

This guy doesn't get it. That, in itself, is racism. Why should a black actor restrict himself to "culturally specific stories"?

That said, I can't imagine anyone but Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden. Bang Zoom, to the moon, Alice...

[prisoner6]

NO

prisoner6

[dead]

If it sells tickets, its a good idea. If it doesn't sell tickets, its a bad idea.

I don't think "The Honeymooners" is going to sell many tickets.

[Nipplemancer]

It's not a remake because both films are based off of a Roald Dahl book. The Depp/Burton version is much more closer to the original work, which like much of Roald Dahl's books, is pretty creepy.

[Tall_Texan]

But just you wait until there's a white version of "The Color Purple" and watch how tolerant some are of diversity.

The numbers cited actualy tell the real story. Whites don't frequent the movies as much because the scripts today are unimaginative and recycled. Minorities with less income have less entertainment options so more and more movies are skewed for that demographic.

Movies. Another "old media" that is slowly dying from a lack of an original thought.

[freepatriot32]

I preferred "On Golden Blonde" myself.

i was always partial to romancing the bone or caddy shack up myself

[Tall_Texan]

I wish Hollywood stop it with all the remakes already.

I think part of the reason for so many remakes is because many of them are rather pure and innocent. Hollywood can't stand that. So they have to remake them into "modern" remakes where some of the characters are gay, f-bombs are hurled frequently and any portrayals of the nuclear family are shown with subtle ridicule.

Hollywood seeks to sully these classics for future generations so as to further their aims at social deterioration.

[darbymcgill]

Color blind my behind. Everything hollywood puts out is controlled, monitored and dictated by the NAACP and other radical anti-white male groups.

Whites don't go to the movies because they are always portrayed as the evil bigots who must be put in their place by their minority superiors. Try watching any of the MSM without getting a diversity lesson shoved down your throat. It's obvious and it's not selling.

[ambrose]

Reminds me of the Brady Bunch remake.

[newzjunkey]

The trend, he said, compares to the casting of minorities in commercials, a common practice fueled by market research showing that whites are no less likely to buy a product if a person of color pitches it — but that minorities are much more likely to use it.

RACISTS! Look at where they're taking themselves: We don't want none of that Whitey product. We don't want none of that Whitey news. We don't want none of that Whitey educatin'!

I admit I've become hyper-sensitively suspicious to the severe drop in whites in ads. It's nice to see it isn't paranoia but a genuine phenomena done for the reason I suspected: whites are colorblind when it comes to product ads, minorities are not.

[monkapotamus]

"Do you know what I just saw? A gopher. Do you know what gophers can do to a golf course?"

[Clemenza]

Whites don't go to the movies because they are always portrayed as the evil bigots who must be put in their place by their minority superiors.

Huh? Where I live, most of the moviegoers are white. I guess you live in the ghetto.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

What's next? A hip-hop version of Grease called "Greasy?"

[Clemenza]

What's next? A hip-hop version of Grease called "Greasy?"

No, a Gay version called "Lube."

[newzjunkey]

I wish Hollywood stop it with all the remakes already.

There are more in the pipeline, I'm sorry to tell you. It's such a void of creativity and that they think changing the skin tone of the cast makes a remake edgy demonstrates how devoid of fresh ideas they are in Hollywood.

I wondered today, before seeing this article, how the Dukes of Hazzard remake avoided the ethnic recasting. Must be that Confederate Battleflag on the General Lee.

I object to some of this ethnic cross-casting. They'll cast a black actor as Kingpin of Crime (character was always white) in DareDevil but heaven help you if you cast a white woman as Storm in X-Men (character is a black African). The new Kojack is a bit of an egregous example since the classic involved a lot of his Greek ethnicity and, in effect, robs one ethnic group of its TV icon. How is this so much better than using blackface makeup?

Why is it you seemingly can't do mixed casts these days? The Honeymooners could've been different ethnicities in this remake. They didn't do it. How often do you see tokenization in black sitcoms or films? Why not a cross-section?

Notice the exception to this supposed "colorblind" recasting: you can't have a white Jim and black Huck.

Interestingly, you can have hetero/homosexual cross-casting. No one (except religious conservatives) cares.

Racial division continues to line the pockets of Jesse Jackson, Sharpton, Jackson-Lee, Conyers, Simmons, Dre, BET, et al. With La Raza, Univision, Telemundo, Azlan and others learning that game too.

Self-segregation, refusal to assimilate and share a common language, fracturing of media... America's in trouble deep.

[Ajnin]

Case in point, the remake of "The Longest Yard".