Racebending Roundup: Hunger Games & Red Dawn Follow The Money

March 18th, 2011 by Arturo

Meanwhile, the updated version of Red Dawn, the 1984 action-cult “classic” is getting another update, this time behind the scenes: The Los Angeles Times reported that the remake, which was to feature China as the invading force in place of the original Soviet Union, will now cast China as a smaller player in a coalition led by North Korea, with digital trickery being used to minimize the Chinese threat.

But don’t go thinking this decision is based on an outpouring of sympathy toward the Chinese people by MGM. The studio, which has had the film on the shelf while sorting its’ financial affairs, is hoping the switch will make the new Dawn easier to sell in the increasingly-important Chinese film market:

A number of Hollywood studios are deepening their business ties to the world’s most populous nation. Disney is building a theme park outside Shanghai, Sony Pictures co-produced the recent “Karate Kid” remake with the government-affiliated China Film Group, and News Corp.‘s Fox International Productions recently made the Chinese-language hit “Hot Summer Days” there. Even independent studios like Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment will release their films “Killers” and “Red” in China in coming months.

Dan Mintz, whose DMG Entertainment is a leading producer and distributor of movies in China, said the “Red Dawn” story dramatizes how Western companies can fundamentally misunderstand how the nation works. If the picture had gone out without redacting the Chinese invaders, he said, “there would have been a real backlash. It’s like being invited to a dinner party and insulting the host all night long. There’s no way to look good…. The film itself was not a smart move.”

Mintz, who met with the producers of “Red Dawn” to offer some suggestions on how they could proceed, said that doing business in China requires a partnership approach. “The more you reach out, the better your relationships will be,” Mintz said. “This is bigger than a single film.”

So, a movie about Communist invaders is being edited so as to not offend a Communist nation. Instead of WOLVERIIINES, maybe the battle cry in the remake should be IRONYYYYYYYY!

Top image courtesy of Celebrity Pictures

Page 2 of 2 | Previous page

Posted in appearances, asian, casting, misrepresentation, mixed race, money, movies | 21 comments

Previous post:
Next post:

  • http://nympholepsy.tumblr.com nympholepsy

    I don’t usually get up in arms about casting decisions, but the Hunger Games are near and dear to my heart and I’m kind of devastated by this?? Like… even putting aside the fact that Katniss really ought to be mixed, Jennifer is very pretty but very conventionally so, whereas Katniss, I thought, was supposed to be more… controversial? And ugh, she’s just… so white. SO DISAPPOINTED.

  • Juke

    Fuh, come on, Jennifer. I like you. Please, please reconsider this.

  • Teknobirdsong

    ugh. this hunger games casting decision is so disappointing. what a wasted opportunity.

  • WomanOnTheStreet

    I don’t know anything about the Hunger Games, but I do remember this actress pretty strongly as being in “Winter’s Bone.” If I were a film executive, trying to think of actresses between the age of 15 and 20 who fit into an Appalachian story, she’d immediately spring to mind. She’d be the only one, actually. She’s new and fresh in my memory and nearly won an Oscar, and that’s pretty good street cred.

    What I wouldn’t think was, “Huh, maybe I should look at millions of potential unknown actresses I’ve never heard of before, and that potential audiences have never heard of, and risk my entire film and financing and marketing on someone untested.”

    I’m sure I could find someone OK if I looked hard enough, but would I choose that person over an Oscar nominee? Who has already been in a really good film involving Appalachia and coal mines? Highly doubtful.

  • Anonymous

    I certainly hope this blows up like Last Airbender. I’m just curious if they’re still going to let Rue be black or will the author allow ‘flexibility’ there too?

  • nicepebbles

    WomanOnTheStreet hit the nail on the head on how an exec would go about casting. The problem with that thinking is it doesn’t take into account the built in audience for the book. This isn’t some untested story. It also doesn’t give audiences unfamiliar with this story any credit.

    I can’t believe the author said yes. I guess she’s looking at the dollar signs, too. I was going to check this book out. Now I’m not so sure. I need to know the author’s reasoning.

  • Cf

    You’re really exaggerating. It is not difficult to find a talented actress with dark hair and olive skin. Those are very common features, in fact, shared by people of many different ethnicities. I like Jennifer Lawrence; she is a very good actress but she is just not appropriate for this role.

  • windup

    there were actually multiple names being bandied around for the role of Katniss, many of whom were arguably as well known or more famous than Jennifer Lawrence. One name that seemed to have a pretty big push was Hailee Steinfeld, who was the heart and soul of “True Grit”, and also happens to be mixed-race (Portuguese mother, Jewish father)

  • Facebook User

    IN the EW article about the casting, the director says

    “There are certain things that are very clear in the book. Rue is African-American. Thresh is African-American.”

    THANK GOD!
    I am so tired of people saying they “didn’t notice” that Rue is black. That is was “ambiguous”! That Rue “Could be anything! Native American, Hispanic, East Asian, etc” anything but black, evidently.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=615763230 Cherry Davis

    Hopefully the fans of the series will show their displeasure by voting with their pocketbooks. It’s the only thing that Hollywood cares about!

  • pak

    “What I wouldn’t think was, “Huh, maybe I should look at millions of potential unknown actresses I’ve never heard of before, and that potential audiences have never heard of, and risk my entire film and financing and marketing on someone untested.” ”

    And if the producers of Winter’s Bone had taken that attitude, then Jennifer Lawrence wouldn’t have ever gotten the chance to be in it that movie and would have never gotten nominated for the Oscars.

  • Anonymous

    By the time this gets made, she’ll be a vampire.

  • Anonymous

    It’s always “ambiguous” when the character is not white. But the original character is white, people will fight tooth and nail for the character to remain white.

  • ray

    I read the books and always thought of Katniss as white. I never got the impression that she or her father were mixed. Rue was obviously black, just as “Foxface” was obviously white. But “olive skin” doesn’t really tell you much. I’m white and I have “olive skin.” If you search it on google images, the first images range from Charlize Theron to Iman; it really is flexible and ambiguous.

  • Pingback: Why the Casting of the Hunger Games Matters - The Interroblog

  • Anonymous

    Have you thought about whether there might be any connection between being white and assuming that the main character is white? I’m not making any accusations against you, I think that it is a very natural part of the way that we read to project ourselves into characters. (Again, I’m not saying that YOU can’t relate to people of color and that’s why you read Katniss as white).

    However, when a book is being written or a movie is being produced for general audiences, a lot of assumptions are made about what is “relatable”. It is thought that white people of every hue will have an easier time relating to a white lead than they would to a person of color, and “general audiences” = white people. So making an “olive skinned” person fair-complexioned becomes less of a leap than making her a light-skinned black woman, for example. These calculations exclude the experience of people who are not white and have fewer representations to identify with.

  • Brandon

    How is a Portugese mother and a Jewish father mixed race? Are there no Portugese Jews?

    And just what race is Jewish, anyway?

  • Pingback: The Pop Up: 2011-03-22 | Xhibit P

  • Anonymous

    I’m definitely NOT trying to say that white people read characters as white and black people read characters as black. If that’s how I sounded, I’m glad you corrected me.

    I am just saying that our experiences affect how we see things. American culture as a whole tends to see white as “normal” or “default”. We all respond to that in different ways, so it’s good to be self-critical.

  • Pingback: Why the Casting of the Hunger Games Matters | The Interroblog

  • Mumtaz

    Camila Belle, for Hunger Games. She’s POC and fits the original character description!