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Dec. 17th, 2004 10:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
apocalypsosI kept meaning to post about the whole Ursula K. Leguin whitewashing-of-Earthsea thing, because the woman's got a point that just drives me nuts about book-to-movie adaptations sometimes. There are hardly enough decent roles in Hollywood for African-Americans and other people of color without Hollywood feeling free to pull stuff like this with characters for whom their race is so important to who and what they are. It's one thing to cast Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin -- I seriously can't think of a better actor the right size for the role, although how his performance turned out is another discussion entirely -- but the whole Earthsea casting issue boiled it down to that tried-and-true cliche of a world full of white people and That Magical Black Person. Thanks, but been there, watched that, was vastly more amused.
I think if I ever do get The Monsters of Minooka stuff published, and they decided to make a movie about it, the only thing I'd really press for with whomever they cast as Sean is that he be short. In my head, he's gone between looking like Dom and a shorter Nick Stahl in T3, so I've always pictured him as white and scruffy. But the major thing is that I wanted to write a short male hero, which I hardly ever see. Every hero or male love interest I always see is six and a half feet tall and drop-dead gorgeous and plated in muscle. Damn it, I wanted a wiry little normal-looking guy who spends half his time trying to prove that he can kick your ass. I want a severe sufferer of short-man's syndrome who's the first to yell, "You want a piece of me?!" and follow through on it. That's what I want. (Oh, and also, I've got a Mother Nature in three parts ... an elderly white woman, a middle-aged black woman, and a young Asian woman. They'd better damn well stick with that, or I'm going to have fits.)
Yes, that would be me counting my chickens. *eye roll* ;)
I think if I ever do get The Monsters of Minooka stuff published, and they decided to make a movie about it, the only thing I'd really press for with whomever they cast as Sean is that he be short. In my head, he's gone between looking like Dom and a shorter Nick Stahl in T3, so I've always pictured him as white and scruffy. But the major thing is that I wanted to write a short male hero, which I hardly ever see. Every hero or male love interest I always see is six and a half feet tall and drop-dead gorgeous and plated in muscle. Damn it, I wanted a wiry little normal-looking guy who spends half his time trying to prove that he can kick your ass. I want a severe sufferer of short-man's syndrome who's the first to yell, "You want a piece of me?!" and follow through on it. That's what I want. (Oh, and also, I've got a Mother Nature in three parts ... an elderly white woman, a middle-aged black woman, and a young Asian woman. They'd better damn well stick with that, or I'm going to have fits.)
Yes, that would be me counting my chickens. *eye roll* ;)
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Date: 2004-12-17 08:08 am (UTC)You could go for broke and try for Peter Dinklage. Fantastic actor with more range than a lot of 'stars' out there.
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Date: 2004-12-17 08:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 08:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 08:14 am (UTC)We've only recently started having tall heroes again.
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Date: 2004-12-17 08:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 11:23 am (UTC)Hugh Jackman standing in back of the other X-Men comes to mind. *snicker*
Anyway, yeah. One of the big reasons I sort of avoid most of the sci-fi genre is its overwhelming tendency to look like a romance novel with weirder outfits and spaceships. I'll just take my Asimov (and my LeGuin, too, though I think of the Earthsea books as fantasy) and sit quietly in the corner, thanks.
Oh, and that mini-series was just plain awful on any terms. I'm willing to forgive the occassionally laughable CGI because it's just television, but the acting was stilted the whole time and the way the creators squashed two books together didn't make much sense. Mostly because they're idiots. But I think that's been made abundantly clear. :/
-blue
What have _you_ been reading?
Date: 2004-12-17 01:42 pm (UTC)Redhawk
Re: What have _you_ been reading?
Date: 2004-12-17 02:01 pm (UTC)-blue
Judging books by their covers...
Date: 2004-12-17 02:14 pm (UTC)Really bad.
Kilobad.
Megabad.
And L.Ron's a crank. This is the guy who kicked off Scientology, you realize. And the first book in B:E is really atrocious. I've read it.
Redhawk
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Date: 2004-12-17 11:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 08:26 am (UTC)Appearently, Ged keeps saying he's just a blacksmith? Huh?
Although, I remember the PBS adaptation of Lathe of Heaven. That was pretty good, actually, if you forgive the tiny budget. But then, she was heabily involved in that one.
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Date: 2004-12-17 08:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 10:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-18 08:34 am (UTC)Teenygozer states the blindingly obvious
Date: 2004-12-17 08:27 am (UTC)It makes me very happy that LotR was done so right... but of course we had to suffer the horrors of Rankin-Bass Productions and Ralph Bakshi first!
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Date: 2004-12-17 08:42 am (UTC)Are you putting any of Monsters on the 'net where people can see it? I know that some publishers have problems with that sort of thing (they'll consider you self-published and refuse to consider your manuscript as viable), which has stopped me. Like Diane Gabaldon, I'll post small sections here and there, cookies and teasers and that sort of thing, but nothing more substantial than that. But I know a lot of folks use Fictionpress anyway.
Personally, I'd like to get my writing and ideas out there to see if what I'm writing interests more than just me (and a couple of friends), but I don't want to jeopardize any chances I might have of publishing what is proving to be my life's work. ;)
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Date: 2004-12-17 10:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 11:13 am (UTC)Rock the fuck on.
Thank you for posting that; it made me feel better. ^_^
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Date: 2004-12-17 12:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 01:23 pm (UTC)I had a crush on him when he was hot and young and tall, and I had a crush on him when he was old and short and stocky. :)
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Date: 2004-12-17 01:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 01:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 04:05 pm (UTC)speaking of white-washed Sci-Fi
Date: 2004-12-17 01:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 01:55 pm (UTC)Rafe is just as dangerous as anyone else. He's small and quick and insanely stronger than he looks, and disturbingly charming. He's pretty much the only one who has some control over Vic.
So, er, the point was that yeah, short male characters can rock. And that different races don't have to be all Magical Non-White Person. Which is your point, so I guess I'm agreeing.
I am so coherent today!
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Date: 2004-12-17 04:09 pm (UTC)One thing I'm working on at the moment has a protagonist who's 6'1" and STILL has a bad case of Short Man Syndrome because among his own people that's still shorter than some of the women... Hee.
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Date: 2004-12-17 09:05 pm (UTC)Why did Seth Green and Topher Grace pop into my head when I read that??