M. Night Shyamalan may be the most successful nonwhite director in Hollywood, but it's the skin color of his lead actors that is threatening to derail his next movie.When the filmmaker sat down with journalists last month to discuss his upcoming film adaptation of the martial-arts fantasy cartoon "The Last Airbender," he defended the casting choices that have disgruntled many fans of the series and drawn the ire of activists. At issue: Three of the four principal roles—characters who in skin tone, facial features, name, and dress all appear Asian and Inuit in the cartoon—have been filled by white actors. The fourth, to be played by Indian-British "Slumdog Millionaire" star Dev Patel, is a villain—and Patel only got that part after pop star Jesse McCartney dropped out of the project.Shyamalan told reporters that he believes the film will be "one of the most incredibly diverse...
- 4/21/2010
- backstage.com
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