KUNIS AND FRANCO TO RETEAM IN OZ?

Mmhhhmmm.

Somehow these news are making me more excited about this. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the last two movies I've watched in the theater were Black Swan and 127 Hours.

I support this development with all my heart and loins.

James Franco and Mila Kunia in a Raimi-directed Oz prequel?  Sign me up NOW!

So where do Bruce Campbell and Ted Raimi fit into all of this?

Blah. I know I have an unpopular opinion around here, but I just think that Sam Raimi is the fucking worst. I enjoy Evil Dead I & II quite a bit but everything after that is just garbage. I have no desire to see Franco, one of the better young actors, goofing off in an unnecessary prequel, directed by Raimi of all people. Franco was pretty god awful in the Spider Man films, so much so that I thought he was just bad all around. Then I saw Pineapple Express and Freaks and Geeks and I wondered just what the hell the guy was doing for the 8 years in between. It was a relief to see in that Oscar Hopeful Actors Roundtable the Hollywood Reporter did awhile back that he acknowledged how bad his career had been for a while. 

I'm sort of in the opposite camp, as I kind of love Raimi, but I think this movie is completely inessential. Isn't this one of like fifteen or twenty movies in recent months that have just had a revolving door of fifteen directors and twenty leading men? I feel like there have been a few blockbusters that have came together recently from the same permutations of a small pool of filmmakers and actors, and it's kind of incestual and desperate.

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Originally Posted by Gabe T 

I'm sort of in the opposite camp, as I kind of love Raimi, but I think this movie is completely inessential. Isn't this one of like fifteen or twenty movies in recent months that have just had a revolving door of fifteen directors and twenty leading men? I feel like there have been a few blockbusters that have came together recently from the same permutations of a small pool of filmmakers and actors, and it's kind of incestual and desperate.

Yeah that's the exact same feeling I'm getting from this too. From the get go you know you're just going to be getting a product and not a film. This project, and like you said most other potential blockbusters nowadays, are just sound incredibly unappealing. 

Agreed. Oz: The Great And Powerful. Snow White And The Huntsman. Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. Pride And Prejudice And Zombies. Fantastic Voyage. And on and on and on.

All these movies were going to happen regardless of who was involved. The filmmakers who signed on just need a paycheck. The only difference is that it feels like the same directors, and ESPECIALLY the same actors are involved in these films, which leads you to believe that the characters themselves are so sketchily written they could be played by anyone, given the names mentioned. As long as they're white, of course.

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Originally Posted by Gabe T 
 As long as they're white, of course.

So... would anyone else really like to see Idris Elba as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer?  I know this gets into Black Spiderman territory, but there is nothing wrong with going off the charts if you are already there to begin with. Lincoln killed vampires and also was black? What ever, I have already suspended my belief, that wouldn't break it.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies set in Mexico City instead of England. I could deal with that.

Oz: The Great and Powerful features an all Bollywood cast? She is far from Kansas.

I honestly don't look at race in film unless the film is about race. I will ogle women of every stripe, creed, nation, and religion.  I will ogle men of every stripe, creed, nation and religion, as they break things, kill things, and try to make love to the women previously ogled.

And Fantastic Voyage?

Perhaps I should have brought up something like Safe House, which was a hot project that had Denzel Washington attached. The other role was for a young, brash agent shepherding Washington to safety. Unless there was some racial tensions present, why were all the contenders for that role white guys (Ryan Reynolds beat out Taylor Kitsch, Zac Efron, Chris Hemsworth and a bunch of other exclusively white contenders, according to the trades)? Would it kill Hollywood to do a mainstream thriller with two leading black actors, perhaps Anthony Mackie or someone else with similar visibility? Anytime there's a young male role in Hollywood, every single contender for the role is a young white guy. Sometimes it's someone like Sam Worthington, who makes sense. Sometimes it's Garrett Hedlund, who approximately NO ONE is excited to see in more roles. And sometimes it's someone like Sam Riley or Michael Fassbender, a really talented guy who 99.8% of the population is unaware of.

Maybe I'm just bothered because, race or no race, it just seems like casting directors are operating from the exact same small pool of actors.

It's probably just a chicken-or-the-egg thing, as we rarely get to see a lot of super talented young minority actors out there in anything other than esoteric indies. I dunno, I just want my Black Panther movie ASAP.

I couldn't remember what Fantastic Voyage was when I wrote that up.

Fantastic Voyage- When a US ambassador is accidentally shot by a Chinese guard, Xi Wei and his team of micronauts must dare to take science to the smallest limits to save the ambassador and prevent War World III! I would watch that. Most of the actors would probably end up being Japanese, but so be it. I need Ken Wantanabe to pilot a submarine crewed by Lucy Liu, Masi Oka, Jet Li, and Michelle Yeoh into the body of Hilary Clinton, while Chow Yun Fat plays the premier of China.

Hollywood needs to integrate.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gabe T 

Would it kill Hollywood to do a mainstream thriller with two leading black actors, perhaps Anthony Mackie or someone else with similar visibility? Anytime there's a young male role in Hollywood, every single contender for the role is a young white guy. Sometimes it's someone like Sam Worthington, who makes sense. Sometimes it's Garrett Hedlund, who approximately NO ONE is excited to see in more roles. And sometimes it's someone like Sam Riley or Michael Fassbender, a really talented guy who 99.8% of the population is unaware of.

 

Maybe I'm just bothered because, race or no race, it just seems like casting directors are operating from the exact same small pool of actors.

 

It's probably just a chicken-or-the-egg thing, as we rarely get to see a lot of super talented young minority actors out there in anything other than esoteric indies. I dunno, I just want my Black Panther movie ASAP.

You should bring that into the Hollywood Whitewashing thread that a few of us update every now and then.