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we saw wut u did thar, paramount
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About this Community

HALLO EVERYONE. MY NAME IS THE BOULDER. THE BOULDER IS UPSET ABOUT THE RACEBENDING OF THE FILM ADAPTATION OF THE BOULDER'S FAVORITE ANIMATED SERIES: Avatar: The Last Airbender.

What this Community is For:
  • Updates on the production of The Last Airbender critiquing the film's failure to maintain the integrity of the original series.

  • Promoting entertainment media that represents and celebrates marginalized groups.

  • Sharing information and engaging members in a safe-space discussion about groups that have been underrepresented in the media due to systemic and institutionalized discrimination.

  • Finding ways to defeat Toph, since she hurt The Boulder's feelings.
For more information and RULES, please view the community profile. Criticism towards the comm should be directed to The Fire Nation Man Thread.

Looking to make posts or join the discussion?
RACEBENDING: Policies: posting and commenting - a very important read, if you want to participate.

For official information and updates please visit the mothership Racebending.com!
30th-Apr-2012 06:43 pm - Casting for New Star Trek Movie
http://badassdigest.com/2012/04/30/reports-confirm-star-trek-2-has-the-safest-possible-villain/

So Bennedict Cumberbatch is playing Khan? Strange. Love Cumberbatch but why's he playing an Indian guy (yes, same can be asked about Ricardo Malteban, but you'd think they'd want to cast better than the old show, not worse)? The Star Trek movies are one of the only major series in Hollywood any racial diversity at all, so whitewashing this role confuses me.
28th-Mar-2012 03:57 pm - Ted Talks
"TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader."

I love TED talks. Speakers have a time limit so they have to get right to the point of their speech. I don't agree with all of them. But I they have helped me grow as a person.

These are two of my favorites, that I pull out to explain racism to people who don't understand, they changed me and they change the people I share them with:
Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story
TEDxHampshireCollege - Jay Smooth - How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Discussing Race

TED has long had a problem with recruiting women speakers. They recently authorized an independently organized TEDxWomen spinoff to speak specifically about women's issues around the world. The TEDx videos are posted on youtube. And they are under attack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxkxcsrveLw&feature=g-u-u&context=G224bf27FUAAAAAAAAAA

This is a Nobel Peace Prize winner speaking about her efforts to help women in her own country. And it's bombarded with trolls claiming that it's sexist because women initiate 90% of divorces (Who knows which country he's referring too - but this is a video about Africa! What does divorce rates in the Western world have to do with Africa?).

While this is pretty obvious trolling, it's pretty heavy trolling. Each time TED uploads a video with a woman speaker, it's immediately getting 100 down votes. Many subscribers don't watch the videos if they are heavily down voted. So these videos are getting less views, and women's voices are being silenced.

I know this is a bit off topic for Racebending, but, if you are interested in TedTalks and have a youtube channel, would you subscribe? Ignore the trolls - but like the videos under attack and up vote the useful comments.

I don't want users being pushed away from such an amazing and inspiring speeches as TedxTalks provides because of trolls.
One of Bill Paxton's upcoming projects is a Kung Fu movie (based on the Carradine series), per this source.

Considering that the tv show is a notorious example of whitewashing, this is something to keep an eye on. However, Paxton's remarks in the linked article are somewhat promising:

To take that a step further, I think the character of Caine, whoever this actor this is, and we're going to have to do a big search, he has to be Chinese-something... Chinese-Irish, Chinese-Israeli, Chinese-American, Chinese-Canadian... He's probably going to have to be a pretty skilled martial artist.


Of course, this is still all very preliminary, but hopefully this comment pans out.
14th-Mar-2012 01:36 pm - Korra Premieres on April 14
Courtesy of Market Watch:

The Legend of Korra, in which the mythology of the beloved animated franchise from Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko continues. The series centers around a new Avatar named Korra, a 17-year-old headstrong and rebellious girl who continually challenges and bucks tradition on her quest to become a fully realized Avatar in a world where benders are under attack. The half-hour series will debut on Saturday, April 14, at 11:00 a.m. (all times ET/PT), as part of Nickelodeon's Saturday morning block (8AM-Noon), which has been the number-one destination for Kids 2-11 for 12 consecutive years and currently delivers more than three million total viewers each week. The Legend of Korra will air regularly on Saturday at 11:00 a.m.


HIP HIP HOORAY
After a tumultuous development process, Disney's 'The Lone Ranger' is finally in production. The film, directed by Gore Verbinski and based on the iconic western hero, stars Armie Hammer ('The Social Network') as The Lone Ranger and Johnny Depp as his faithful Native American sidekick Tonto. Today, the very first image from the set hit the web, thanks to producer Jerry Bruckheimer's twitter account, showing both characters in full costume and makeup. I like Hammer's getup and look, but something about Depp makes it look like he's playing another variation of Hunter S. Thompson and is experiencing a bad peyote trip. He just looks like he's playing it for laughs. Take a look at the image below and let us know what you think. [SOURCE]


Image Behind the Cut )

...Of all the Native American actors and history at their disposal, why did they choose to go this route of all things? Its just... fucking frustrating. Already you've got people trying to defend it by citing Johnny's grandmother.
Worst nightmare has come true it seems...

Just a heads up, because I just found out about this today:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-02-22/warner-develops-live-action-film-of-tite-kubo-bleach-manga

After Akira failed to get people, it looks like Warner Bros. is aiming at Shonen Jump's popular flagship titles to make a movie out of it.
I see Masi Oka in there, though like the other anime-Hollywood adaptions, I'm not giving much hope that they will do this justice.
10th-Feb-2012 05:51 pm - Casting for The Great Wall
I came across an article yesterday, on comingsoon.net, about a new movie - The Great Wall, - which "looks at the mystery behind how China's Great Wall was constructed from a story conceived by Legendary Pictures chairman Thomas Tull and Max Brooks."

Exciting, yes? A great opportunity for Chinese actors?

In negotiations to star is Man of Steel actor Henry Cavill. Now I'm not saying this will necessarily be a racist movie where the Mighty Whitey helps the natives build something beyond their architectural/scientific comprehension, given the scarcity of information and how it's still in pre-production, but this casting, imho, does not bode well, and it looks like something to keep an eye on, y/y?

Read more: Superman Star Henry Cavill to Build The Great Wall - ComingSoon.net http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=86864#ixzz1m1ech1kx


In an appearance on The Daily Show last night, George Lucas said that he had trouble getting funding for his new movie, "Red Tails," because of its black cast.

"This has been held up for release since 1942 since it was shot, I've been trying to get released ever since," Lucas quipped to Jon Stewart. "It's because it's an all-black movie. There's no major white roles in it at all...I showed it to all of them and they said no. We don't know how to market a movie like this."

"Red Tails," which stars Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Terrence Howard, is based on the Tuskegee Airmen, the group of pioneering black pilots who fought in the United States' segregated armed forces during World War II. The movie is directed by Anthony Hemingway, the rare black director getting a chance to direct a big-budget feature.


Read More )
15th-Jan-2012 12:01 am - Racebending Mentioned on CNN Blog
http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/13/is-hollywood-whitewashing-asian-roles/

Good article, with quotes from the Racebending website and from spokesperson Michael Le (try to ignore the comments, though, as usual).
8th-Jan-2012 09:30 pm - Racebending in 'Big Miracle'?
Perpetual lurker, first-time poster, delurking for hopes for more info on the new film 'Big Miracle'. Saw a commercial for it earlier today, and as 'based on a true story' always sends my alarms ringing, I wiki'd it. It appears that the cast is predominantly white, but the only individual mentioned on the page for 'Operation Breakthrough' (the 'true story') is an Inupiaq Inuit named Roy Ahmaogak. In fact, the Wikipedia page really emphasises that the local community was Inuit and they're the ones who got the whole thing rolling. So now I'm really giving the film a side-eye, and wanted to know: does anyone know anything more?


Wikipedia links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Miracle and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Breakthrough
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