Thursday, December 20, 2012

Kind of Thing I Live For

Check this out. A guy named Ken Ferrigni writes:

My point here is that Peter Jackson and Co. got called out for color-coded casting, responded by firing the person who was doing the casting, and then continued to cast an all white group. So somewhere, in some production meeting, PJ&Co. concluded that total whiteness was essential to the story of the Hobbit. That's fine. But it has to be viewed as a choice. Not as a default. And not as an accident.

I don't know if Ken Ferrigni is a light-skinned human or not. But a man named Matthew Preston responds succinctly:

Hidden Tiger, Crouching Dragon had no black people either. WTF? I was just watching the film thinking 'Why aren't there any black people in this mythical medieval China?' They should've made it like Thor where 1/3rd of the Vikings were white, 1/3rd black and 1/3rd Asian, which looks a lot more realistic and believable.

Mr. Preston also included a picture, so you can decide if he's allowed to be ironic about knee-jerk race-baiting.

Matthew Preston, thanks for making my day.

BTW, I have to say this about Thor. Idris Elba did a fine job playing Heimdall, IMHO. And I don't think they gave that Asian Viking dude, what's his name, enough screen time.