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White male lead in the spec script Disney bought for the live action remake of Mulan

Who should play the lead character and true hero in Mulan's live action movie?


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Calm Mind

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Those better have been some damn good scenes they're gonna lift out of this script if they saw this fit to even purchase in the first place

EDIT: actually fuck what I just said, no scene of quality would justify such a character insert, fuck me for even saying that
 

-griffy-

Banned
You mean Asians should give Disney the benefit of the doubt despite Doctor Strange, Daredevil season 2, and Iron Fist?

Marvel Studios/TV entering murky territory trying to adapt their comics into live action properties and grappling with what being faithful to the source actually means in 2016 is a bit different than what Walt Disney Studios itself has actually been doing with their own live action and animated films. Remember, LucasFilm and Marvel Studios are essentially making their own decisions about their stuff.

Disney made it a point to say they are going to cast a Chinese actress as Mulan in the announcement, getting out in front of shit like Ghost in the Shell or Tilda Swinton in Doctor Strange even getting to be a discussion for the internet to have. They were prescient enough for that, so I find it hard to believe this white savior male lead would actually make it to the script they are actually writing and putting into production themselves.

Like, the most you can say at this point is hopefully they are smart enough to change that. You can only say the spec is problematic, which isn't really saying anything about Disney or the movie that doesn't exist at this point. I kind of have to assume they are smart enough, especially since this specific thing has gotten a lot of press in the last year with Doctor Strange changing the race of a role, Iron Fist not changing the race of the lead, Ghost in the Shell putting ScarJo in the lead, and Matt Damon rescuing the Great Wall. They should know, right?
 
I saw spec script and cringed.

Yeah, it mentions the whole white savior thing but as noted Disney is actively rewriting it. Chances are they saw a gem in that script and kept it / added it to what they want Mulan to be in live action.

We should wait until casting is announced.

But then it'd be too late if Disney kept that part in. It's hilarious how people assume that just because the script is getting rewritten, the part of the White European Trader will be completely omitted.
 
I agree that it was misleading to present this news as though it reflects a version of the script that Disney is actively using, it still says a lot that this was a script that was considered worthy to put on the market.

Besides, I don't see the harm in reemphasizing the point to Disney that inserting a white male lead in the story would be a horrible idea. If they are even slightly considering keeping that aspect, better to put pressure now than when the cast is announced and it would be too late.

Concerning the point of Asian actors vs. Asian American actors, I can see why there would be animosity. Looking at movies like Great Wall, you see that production companies in China are largely complicit with the inserting of white actors into Asian stories, since they feel it lends prestige. You see a lot of people on NeoGAF saying that it's alright to make Matt Damon the star because actual Chinese people are in favor of it, and thus the Asian Americans complaining about it are just whiners and/or just white people pretending to be Asian Americans. The fact is that Asian Americans do have a hard time getting good acting roles, and both due to what I mentioned and Hollywood often looking outside the US for Asian actors for various reasons. That said, without the proper context, his complaints can look very odd.

This isn't what he says though

But what I find equally troubling is the fact that Disney plans to cast a 16-17 year old established Chinese actress as Mulan, and will not be casting an Asian American.
Let's be real. Casting a Chinese actress as Mulan is a ploy to appeal to a Chinese market, which honestly will not be as enthusiastic as our American audience to see our retelling of a tale they know best. The animated film made $120 million in the U.S. and Canada combined, and completely flopped in Chinese markets because her character was so different from what the Chinese recognized. If this live-action film tries to cater to both the Chinese and American markets without understanding the cultural implications of its creative choices, this film will fall short of both. If the film splits focus from Mulan to a white male lead and is more interested in targeting a Chinese market with its casting, it will estrange its immensely devoted American audience.

He's mad they're casting chinese not complicit in the white savior stuff.

And he follows this up with by saying Asian Americans are who saved Mulan so chinese audiences should be ignored because they don't want to see it anyways. He divorces the point about white savors with the appeal to china with the Chinese actress.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
Meh...neither white male or asian female should be the lead hero. They should use this opportunity to give the lead role to the best Mulan character:
Conny baby..., hey we need a ride
light me
Dishonour on you, dishonour on your cow
Your worst nightmare
I liiiive

Mushu was da real mvp
 
That spec script was by female writers, I would think they'd know to avoid that.

Don't see the concern about casting a Chinese actress as compared to a Chinese-American one. The Chinese movie market has grown since Mulan came out, they'd go nuts over one of their actresses in a major Disney movie. I can see Disney making changes to hew more closely to the original legend.
 
I saw spec script and cringed.

Yeah, it mentions the whole white savior thing but as noted Disney is actively rewriting it. Chances are they saw a gem in that script and kept it / added it to what they want Mulan to be in live action.

We should wait until casting is announced.

I don't see how there could be a gem in a script that's premised on the white savior in one of the most well known Chinese legends. Sorry but you're not writing something WOW amazing to add to a story like Mulan.
 
What do you mean? The entire story is dependent on the main characters being foreigners.

Lots of criticisms (not only of this movie and story) seem to be saying there's no place for stranger in strange land stories as they otherize the people already present.

I'm surprised its not getting more push back as its also got the Christianity angle
 
So they contrived a whole forced new point of view for the narrative to shoehorn in a white guy as the protagonist.

What the fuck Disney.

Disney didn't write this. It was a spec script that they purchased from these writers. They're either merging it with an existing script they'd been working on or rewriting it. This is much ado about nothing, and people in here acting like it was the shooting script that had the white lead.
 
Doctor Strange I can understand, but the remaining two? huh?

I'm not really familiar with DD S2. But look at how Luke Cage dealt with the fairly racist portrayal in his original comic in the new netflix show. But yet in Iron Fist they decided to stay true to the racially insensitive cultural appropriation in Iron Fist. Especially when the Defenders already have both a white male and white female member.

Then for Colleen who is supposed to be fully Asian they cast an actress who is half white, which is extremely common in Hollywood because they feel the more white features of mixed Asians will sell better.
 

norm9

Member
Moving forward with the spec would be as stupid as making a Bruce Lee biopic that focuses on Steve McKeen. Who'd do that?

Exactly, there's absolutely no way a Bruce Lee movie wouldn't have Bruce Lee as the main character. Gotta have faith in the writers, people.
 

AkumaNiko

Member
So i am thinking the OP needs to be updated that its a spec script that has been in re-writing for a while now. So he got old info and was outraged for "almost" nothing. I can understand if it was still the case why he would be pissed.

But my question, why be pissed they are looking for a Chinese actress and not a an american/chinese actress?
 
Disney didn't write this. It was a spec script that they purchased from these writers. They're either merging it with an existing script they'd been working on or rewriting it. This is much ado about nothing, and people in here acting like it was the shooting script that had the white lead.

Ah. So there's still hope. It'll be nice if they don't move forward in a tonedeaf manner and whitewash this unnecessarily.
 
But then it'd be too late if Disney kept that part in. It's hilarious how people assume that just because the script is getting rewritten, the part of the White European Trader will be completely omitted.

Today's Disney isn't tone deaf. They saw what happened with Avatar, the current backlash with GitS, and everything in the past. We don't know if it's too late because all this is based off a spec script (something not even close to set in stone). No one knows casting, all the writers, producers, etc. All we know is it's being made and they've shopped around for scripts and are actively writing it.

This may be just a general call to tell Disney to cast Asians and that's fine but all this does is damage a movie before it's barely even begun.

No one knows what will be omitted because even Disney doesn't know as it's still in writing, but I can assume today's Disney is more forward thinking with their movies in that they'll do fine by it.

Edit: the one thing that may be set in stone is how Disney treats China in the movie since they've got some peculiar requirements.
 

KonradLaw

Member
I'm not really familiar with DD S2. But look at how Luke Cage dealt with the fairly racist portrayal in his original comic in the new netflix show. But yet in Iron Fist they decided to stay true to the racially insensitive cultural appropriation in Iron Fist. Especially when the Defenders already have both a white male and white female member.

Then for Colleen who is supposed to be fully Asian they cast an actress who is half white, which is extremely common in Hollywood because they feel the more white features of mixed Asians will sell better.

Danny Rand wouldn't work as asian though. It's a rare case of white superhero character that wouldn't survive changing his race. You could make asian Iron Fist, just not asian Danny.
But I didn't realise Collen isn't played by full blown asian. Even though this seems a bit petty distinction.
 

Cybit

FGC Waterboy
You mean Asians should give Disney the benefit of the doubt despite Doctor Strange, Daredevil season 2, and Iron Fist?

heck, I'm asian-american and I think so.

Doctor Strange: They got one of the world's best actresses to play an apparently androgynous powerful leader, and didn't fall into the old wise asian man stereotype ala Mr Miyagi. They also brought in BD Wong and completely redid the Wong character to remove the stereotypical aspects.

One of the Masters of Mystic Arts, tasked with protecting some of Kamar-Taj's most valuable relics and book.The actor described Wong as "more of a drill sergeant to Kamar-Taj", rather than "the tea-making manservant" to Strange as depicted in the comics.[24] The character was not included in the script initially, since in the comics he is "an Asian sidekick manservant." However, once Tilda Swinton was cast as the Ancient One, Derrickson decided to include the character again, "because, unlike the Ancient One, he could be completely subverted as a character and reworked into something that didn’t fall into any of the stereotypes of the comics."

Daredevil Season 2: Haven't gotten a chance to watch more than the first half - glad they went with an asian actress instead of a greek actress.

Iron Fist: When Jessica Jones was announced (and the plot was announced), everyone was freaking out about whether JJ would do it right, and everyone assumed Marvel would fuck it up. They didn't. When Luke Cage was announced, everyone freaked out and assumed the blaxploitation would be bad and it would come across as terrible. It didn't. At what point do we need to take a step back and go "you know, maaybe, just maaaybe, they sort of deserve some credit for both Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, and making Agent Carter, and having unbelievable diversity in Agents of SHIELD"?

Maybe they tackle appropriation issues really thoughtfully in Iron Fist...kind of like they tackled PTSD and sexual assault and consent in Jessica Jones really well, and how they tackled black culture in America really well in Luke Cage.

Between Agent Carter, Agents of SHIELD (main lead is an asian-american woman, and Agent May is the best written and most beloved character in the series), Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage - they have earned at least the benefit of the doubt over the "this spec script from a year ago". Lets not even get into how they casted Moana (which is more tied to the side of Disney working on this) thoughtfully as well.
 
No, they like money. People keep raising this issue and then turn around and give them more money. Nothing will change.
i'd have more respect for them if they made the bold move of casting an asian as the main character. the only way to diversify shit like this is to get an asian, as the lead, one day have it be a blockbuster which will then open up opportunities for many more.

it's never gonna happen if they always fuckin play it "safe"
 

TheXbox

Member
Have to question the authenticity of this. Why would the author go out of their way to characterize his self/her self as Asian American? Just seems like easy bait for Disney lawyers to track you down and drop a fat lawsuit on your ass. Like, how many people have realistically had eyes on this script?
 

Verelios

Member
This is terrible, come on Disney. You expect him to sing Make a man like that, when he's a merchant? Just give Asian Americans a chance at a cool, iconic role for once where it fits.
 

Cybit

FGC Waterboy
Also, this is where I am amused that people are ignoring the fact that Marvel's first superhero TV show (and I believe still most watched due to network televsion) has an asian-american superhero as the lead character.
 
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