Hi Spider, I've tried to stick to the facts as they have been reported and have included speculation regarding believable rumours that have been heavily and continuously reported but not 100% confirmed. I've tried to keep all of my own personal opinions away from the post.
I'm not seeing Akiva call all fans who are against the casting racist here... But sure, it is a bit vague as we don't have an exact preceding comment/s to go with it which makes context difficult, and he hasn't clarified since who exactly he was referring to. The eff themselves comment appears odd tacked onto the rest of what he said. If anyone could supply the preceding comment or question that led to it, it would be helpful, otherwise the quote appears to stand that just racist aholes should eff themselves. What constitutes racist to Akiva? The fans that are against the casting because it's not true to the books or the fans that have actually come out with racist slurs against Idris and the film makers because he was cast? What it looks like to me is that Akiva is separating these two groups of people before making that comment. Or is he? I will admit that what he said was incredibly stupid, and it looks like there should be a very relevant sentence in that quote somewhere and there isn't.
The best article i have found is >> http://au.ign.com/articles/2016/01/08/akiva-goldsman-calls-idris-elba-the-best-guy-for-the-dark-tower?utm_source=IGN%20hub%20page&utm_medium=IGN%20(front%20page)&utm_content=4&utm_campaign=Blogroll
"I think Idris Elba is the greatest possible idea for casting for Roland, and I'm unbelievably proud of it as a collaborator on this enterprise and because I think that he's a great actor and I couldn't be more thrilled that he is likely to play a part," Goldsman said. "I understand that people who are thoughtful about the storytelling and the racial politics of the storytelling might want to understand how that informs that storytelling, and I respect that and I hear that, and those things are not things we didn't think about or don't think about. The racist a--holes should go f--k themselves."
"100 percent it was literally, entirely who do we think the best guy for the job is and can we get him. That was it."
But in the same interview he speaks about Underground, and i'm at a bit of a crossroads here.
Goldsman spoke about how he feels the "specificity of casting informs the narrative," and how changing the characterization of characters in adaptations doesn't "defile the source material."
"Fundamentally all storytelling, even in a not charged environment, all storytelling needs to be intact as an object that you voyeuristically [consume] and then it needs to be intrusive," he said. "You can do that politically, you can do that emotionally, you can do that narratively; you sort of need to do all three things. I think we're trying to tell entertaining, meaningful, truthful stories. I believe that there's a dialogue that needs to continue and increase in volume in our country today, but that's my own personal belief. If the stories trigger more conversation and more attention, then we're really lucky."
Could one take from that, that Akiva may use political agendas in his work (and casting) for attention because of his own personal beliefs? If another poster agrees that the original quote is too vague to excuse it as totally innocent and that he could have been tarring us all with the same brush, i will change it to speculation as i could be falling back on opinion.
Arcel may not have read the books, but he said he did, just like Idris said he didn't read the books and Anders Thomas Jensen said he didn't read them until after he was on board to finish the script. I'm just trying to give a run down of what has been stated by those involved in the film. We can't factually dispute the information we've been given, only form our own personal opinions on if they're true or not. But we can rationally and relevantly dispute these things if we have enough evidence to make an informed opinion.
Does Akiva have a history of pushing political agendas in film? Has Arcel been caught lying before to promote a film? Has Idris said he never read the books and wanted to play an action hero? I wouldn't say i'm an ally, but i do listen to your points and on occasion i have found your opinions relevant and sometimes mirror my own sentiments. But i would like to stick to facts and informed speculation on this post due to a lack of knowledge by new posters :)
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Spider198
8 years ago
You are looking for more nuance in Goldsman's statement than there really is. He just made excuses for their poor casting and then hurled the racist abuse at anyone who continues to criticise it. He's a total idiot and a hack.
Nobody who read the book would ever consider Elba for Roland when making a film, as proven by anytime there was a casting suggestion thread before any casting was done not a single person suggested any black actor.
Arcel is talking cr*p when he claims to have read the books, that or his English is terrible and he's not very bright.
Elba is an attention seeker who will take any part even if it's just PC stunt casting, as proven when he accepted the part in Thor he should never have got either.
The writer is just bad, but at least he admits he never read the books.
What is proof that Sony have pulled stunts like this before is Ghostbusters, they turned every criticism against that film into being sexist. When there were many reasons that was hated, anyone who saw the perfectly valid criticism in the YouTube comments that were deleted while the few sexist comments were left can attest to that.
Didn't help that film succeed playing the victim card either.
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Captain_Wesker
8 years ago
Facts only. Do not pollute this thread with your opinions poorly disguised as objective information.
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It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing .
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Spider198
8 years ago
I have stated facts, you just can't refute them so are trying to pretend they are not. Now be quiet unless you have something to add hypocrite.
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Captain_Wesker
8 years ago
Facts can be tested and proven. "I REALLY FEEL THIS WAY ABOUT THIS SUBJECT, please believe me" is not a fact.
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It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing .
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Spider198
8 years ago
I never asked you to 'please believe me' I stated something true and you are too braindead to see it. Your lack of intelligence is your problem.
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tinasparklesau
8 years ago
You are looking for more nuance in Goldsman's statement than there really is.
I will admit yes, it appears i am. I'm looking for further context to attempt to clear his name regarding his statement, which does shows bias i guess. I will alter what i stated as fact to speculation as there is definitely a case to argue that he was referring to all fans that were against the casting, whether he meant one or the other can't be proven.
Elba is an attention seeker
Well it kinda comes with the territory doesn't it? I usually like him as a person but the 'win a date with Idris' thing is cheesy beyond belief . I keep trying to picture him as Roland, but that charity promo thing made me cringe.
Ghostbusters. I don't think anyone is going to argue that debacle. But is it Sony (the people handing out the $), or everyone else involved too? We could argue that film makers and actors with integrity would walk if Sony were pushing agendas that interfered with the vision of the film, and plenty of people do walk - Junkie XL recently walked from a Sony movie because the director left and he shared his vision so it DOES happen (looks good for Junkie XL and TDT doesn't it? He has backbone...)... But i feel i'm a bit over my head discussing the specifics of this type of hollywood politics and how much it may relate to TDT. But thanks for the extra insight. Is it your opinion that the majority of the people involved in TDT are just cashing in paychecks from Sony? You don't seem to hold many of them in high regard. What are your views on Grazer and Howard? They've also been attached to the project for a long time.
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