[News] Film Remakes with more BAME representation

[AmexRuislip]

Forrest Gump, with lead role played by David Icke

 

[Barrow Boy]

I usually hate yellow face in films. I couldn't care less if it's racist; it just looks ridiculous most of the time and spoils the film. Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's is a prime example.

I can think of one occasion when it worked: Joel Grey in Remo Williams: the Adventure Begins (aka Remo: Unarmed and Dangerous).

Christopher Lee came close with the Fu Manchu films and Terror of the Tongs, but that's about it.

You don't think Brando nailed it then?

 

[BBassic]

I'd rather see zero remakes. Lazy film making.

Just write and create new movies.

There are some cracking remakes though. Not many, but a few do exist.

The Thing
The Departed
Scarface
Ocean's Eleven (though admittedly this could be just because I'm a Soderbergh fanboy)
The Birdcage

An admittedly small list.

 

[Hamilton]

Planet of the Apes?

FFS! That's a ****ing disgraceful post. Totally racist and you should be banned.

 

[half time scores]

Planet of the Apes?

you have always appeared to me to be one of the more sensible posters on hear.
I don't think you though that post through before hitting the post button.

 

[RossyG]

There are some cracking remakes though. Not many, but a few do exist.

The Thing
The Departed
Scarface
Ocean's Eleven (though admittedly this could be just because I'm a Soderbergh fanboy)
The Birdcage

An admittedly small list.

I’d add...

The Blob (1988)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
The Maltese Falcon
Casino Royale
True Lies

And technically The Wizard of Oz (1939) is a remake too.

 

[Hugo Rune]

This thread isn't going to end well is it

I’m surprised it hasn’t been deleted after the 9th post, let alone consigned to the bear pit!

 

[Gabbafella]

Blazing Saddles

This was my first thought.

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

Really?

Cult classic
Regards
DF

 

[Live by the sea]

Surely you get a part in a film based on your acting ability and to a degree what the director feels the role should look like . Obviously if the character is meant to be black then it should be given to the best black actor available at that time who wants to do it . However changing characters just for the sake of it ie James Bond who clearly was a white middle class sophisticated character in Ian flemings books is rather pointless I would have thought .

Far better to encourage more films about black characters and have more black directors and producers working in the industry but again like spike lee they have to be good enough and have the talent not just a tick box exercise .

Not sure about the breakdown in the USA but in the UK the black population make up about 10% of the population so it’s not under performed if black characters are not in every film , statistics show you be showing main lead black characters in one film in every 10 to be representative.

At the end of the day most people are most comfortable watching people in films and tv they feel they can identify with and relate to , be it black or white or any other colour . We are a majority white country so expect to see mainly but not exclusively white faces on our TV screens - that’s just the reality . That doesn’t mean people are anti any one else just what they expect and are conditioned. Most white people I know don’t have many if any close black friends and I expect the reverse is true for black people. That doesn’t mean its right but simply what people are used to and comfortable with . I have a few black friends but I think I’m probably in the minority although they all share a similar background to me so I don’t notice any culture difference .

 

[zefarelly]

Really?

What do you think?

 

[zefarelly]

FFS! That's a ****ing disgraceful post. Totally racist and you should be banned.

Oh **** off and get a grip, its a stupid thread thats getting silly replies. Do you really for one second think There's anything in the slightest bit serious or racist about it? FFS you flake! If thats what NSC has come to, please do ban me!

 

[Killer Whale]

Not a remake, but apparently they are making a film about Captain Tom's life.

Surely Lenny Henry is a shoo in to play him?

 

[lawros left foot]

Birth of a Nation.

 

[Bold Seagull]

FFS! That's a ****ing disgraceful post. Totally racist and you should be banned.

Oh **** off and get a grip, its a stupid thread thats getting silly replies. Do you really for one second think There's anything in the slightest bit serious or racist about it? FFS you flake! If thats what NSC has come to, please do ban me!

I'm sure this is just crossed wires, because what is interesting is that the original Planet of the Apes is an anti-racism film, and arrived only a few months after the assassination of MLK. The classic scenes of Heston getting hosed down like a beast directly echoed the water cannons used to disperse black rights protestors.

Of course Rosanne lost her career and her series cancelled when she said Valerie Jarrett looked like a character of POTA. So [MENTION=225]Hamilton[/MENTION] isn't entirely without foundation on what that means, although when I saw you post it, I assumed it was saracastic / satirical rather than a bear pit-esque one.

 

[pastafarian]

Young Winston
Samuel L Jackson as Churchill

Invictus
Jackie Chan as Mandela
Halle Berry as Francois Pienaar

 

[Sussexscots]

Oh **** off and get a grip, its a stupid thread thats getting silly replies. Do you really for one second think There's anything in the slightest bit serious or racist about it? FFS you flake! If thats what NSC has come to, please do ban me!

In fairness, I have always considered PotA an allegory on racism. If one looks critically at the original PotA series, in the first film, the possible strong female character (Stewart) is killed off before they land and the sole black character (Landon) is captured and lobotomised. After that, only ultra whitey Charlton Heston can save the day. And doesn't. Scope for change in a remake with a strong BAME character playing the lead?

And in the fourth film of the series, the only sympathetic human characters are Mexican Ricardo Montalban's Armando and African American Hari Rhodes as Macdonald. A role reprised by Trinidadian Austin Stoker in the final film. Both characters promote inter species harmony.

Hari Rhodes wrote, in response to the racism he experienced as a black actor, an unpublished novel, Harambee, about a plot to exterminate the world's caucasian population.

See how tricky this stuff can get...

 

[Hamilton]

I'm sure this is just crossed wires, because what is interesting is that the original Planet of the Apes is an anti-racism film, and arrived only a few months after the assassination of MLK. The classic scenes of Heston getting hosed down like a beast directly echoed the water cannons used to disperse black rights protestors.

Of course Rosanne lost her career and her series cancelled when she said Valerie Jarrett looked like a character of POTA. So [MENTION=225]Hamilton[/MENTION] isn't entirely without foundation on what that means, although when I saw you post it, I assumed it was saracastic / satirical rather than a bear pit-esque one.

I think you are being overly generous and looking at the pathetic response from [MENTION=263]zefarelly[/MENTION] it is clear that he had no intention in making some clever link to the message in the film.

Anyone linking their suggestion that Planet of the Apes could do with more black actors knows exactly what they are doing. It maybe that he/she sees it as humour. It's not humour, it's hatred and it's what we are supposed to be trying to stamp out.

The retort that I am being a flake couldn't be further from the truth. You don't flake when you see this, you call it out and if zefarelly had any character he/she would now apologise for any offence intended and explain what was meant.

Words aren't just silly comments. They carry meaning.

 

[albionalex]

Surely you get a part in a film based on your acting ability and to a degree what the director feels the role should look like . Obviously if the character is meant to be black then it should be given to the best black actor available at that time who wants to do it . However changing characters just for the sake of it ie James Bond who clearly was a white middle class sophisticated character in Ian flemings books is rather pointless I would have thought .

So black people can't be middle class and sophisticated?

 

[Bold Seagull]

However changing characters just for the sake of it ie James Bond who clearly was a white middle class sophisticated character in Ian flemings books is rather pointless I would have thought.

It really doesn't matter what Flemming originally intended as the development of the character has gone way beyond what Flemming's books covered. Felix Lighter was white, but it doesn't make a blind bit of difference that in the Daniel Craig era, he is played by Jeffery Wright.

If one is to say Flemming wrote Bond as white only and you have to strictly adhere to his writing, how on earth do you justify Bond being set in any era other than 1951 - 1964? Any time frame Bond appears in after 1964 isn't covered by Flemming, so is already an interpretation of how the character would be in the modern world, unless Bond should really be cast as a white geriatric if the film is set in today's world?