The Film Wiz

One of my hommies from twitter hit me up and told me to go to Racebending.com. The website points out how the lead cast for M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming film The Last Airbender are all white with the exception of Zuko, the villain, who will be played by an Asian actor…

Check out the article:

The Nickelodeon show “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” on which this film is based, featured Asian characters in a fantasy setting inspired and informed by a variety of Asian cultures. The characters fight with East Asian martial arts, have Asian features, dress in clothing from Asian cultures, and write with Chinese characters. The cast and setting were a refreshing departure from predominantly white American media, and were a large part of the show’s appeal as well as an inspiration to many Asian American children.
Characters from the animated series. Katara and Sokka from the peacful and oppressed Water Tribe; Zuko from the tyrannical and genocidal Fire Nation.
Most recent casting for the movie. Nicola Peltz as Katara, Jackson Rathbone as Sokka, Dev Patel as Zuko (originally cast as Jesse McCartney, a blond, blue-eyed popstar).

I’m not sure this will have a huge effect on the outcome at the box office…But its still messed up how Hollywood tries to change key elements of a story line….To be honest I really can’t see any of the cast doing martial arts in any form or fashion…I’m willing to bet that the ethnic difference will take away from the feel of the plot…It’ll probably end up being nothing like the show just like the rest of the TV show based movies…