REVERSE ANGLE
They weren’t serious … right?
A mini-controversy gripped the Internet recently when the site Angry Asian Man posted an open letter from someone claiming to have read a spec script for Disney’s in-the-works live-action “Mulan” (“The Legend of Mulan”). The letter described teenage Mulan’s love interest not as hunky Chinese warrior Li Shang from the animated film but as a “30-something European trader.”
The letter read, in part: “More than half of its pages are dedicated to this merchant who develops a mutual attraction with Mulan and fights to protect her. … This man gets the honor of defeating the primary enemy of China, not Mulan.”
This would certainly fit not only Hollywood’s long-standing practice of telling ethnic stories from a Caucasian point of view (see “Cry Freedom,” “Mississippi Burning,” “Glory”), but Disney’s recent practice of whitewashing the Asianness out of roles (see Marvel’s “Iron Man 3,” “Doctor Strange,” “Big Hero 6”).
Soon after the letter went viral and spawned an online petition in protest, an unnamed “source close to the project” told Vanity Fair, “The spec script was a jumping-off point, … All primary roles, including the love interest, are Chinese.”
Disney hasn’t denied the initial “white savior” narrative, but there are new writers on the project, so that’s something.
Some in Hollywood may say no one will want to see a movie without a white lead … while Denzel Washington, Will Smith and others rack up the grosses. The Jackie Chans, Angelababys, Bai Baihes and Amitabh Bachchans of the world dominate the global box office.
One of the arguments put forth by “Doctor Strange” writer C. Robert Cargill for casting a white actress as the Ancient One was a desire not to alienate the Chinese market. “Mulan” grossed $304 million back when that was real money in 1998. So its international following should only grow with an Asian male lead.
The open letter posted at Angry Asian Man is at http:// bit.ly/2dfxuYX.
Fifty shades of green
There are, presumably, people eagerly awaiting “50 Shades Darker” next spring. For those who can’t stand the anticipation, there’s a Muppets version of “Fifty Shades of Grey” put together by people with far too much time on their hands.
Here it is: https://youtu.be/ l3edrF3wrF8.
Men movies
“Logan,” the upcoming curtain-dropper on Hugh Jackman’s run as X-Man Wolverine, is due in March. Returning director James Mangold (of “The Wolverine”) tweeted “Page two of our screenplay” on Oct. 5: a photo of an actual script page. The script’s expository text reads, in part:
“Basically, if you’re on the make for a hyper choreographed, gravity defying, city-block destroying CG f—athon, this ain’t your movie. In this flick, people get hurt or killed when (expletive) falls on them. … Should anyone in our story have the misfortune to fall off a roof or out a window, they won’t bounce. They will die.”
It goes on to describe the aged Wolverine in this dystopian future (based on the pitch-dark “Old Man Logan” comics story line) as severely diminished, including being largely de-powered and drunk.
Mangold’s tweet is at https:// twitter.com/mang0ld/status/78365 3479113904128/photo/1?ref_src= twsrc%5Etfw.
Die another day?
Daniel Craig has said he’d rather kill himself than play 007 again. But while speaking on a “Beyond Bond” panel at the New Yorker Festival on Oct. 7, Craig said, “If I were to stop doing it, I would miss it terribly. … If I can keep getting a kick out of it, I will.”