Prince of Persia

[Broughden]

Worst game to movie cross over evah? Oh I THINK SO! This has fail written all over it, so I had to share it with you all!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/07/jake-gyllenhaal-shirtless_n_172788.html

[Ookii]

That shit is hilarious.

[HaemishM]

Whoa. 

[Merusk]

Dude TOTALLY looks Persian.

I now know what my grandkids are going to mock my generation for the way we mock our parent/ grandparents for casting white guys as Asians.

[Hindenburg]

This is the chap that almost got the role:


I believe we can all imagine how badly the movie would've tanked if he were the lead.
Could be worse, Orlando Bloom was also trying to get it.

[stray]

I don't mind well known Hollywood actors playing various ethnicities, but only if they are sort of ambiguous themselves (the Rock, Zeta Jones, Keanu..). But Jake is just a straight up white boy. Although, I guess there's at least one Iranian that looks like him.. somewhere.

[UnSub]

It's not like this is without precedent ...



... but there certainly are more Persian looking actors out there.

[DraconianOne]

...but only if they are sort of ambiguous themselves (the Rock, Zeta Jones, Keanu..). ...

Dwayne and Keanu at least have "ethnic" backgrounds. Zeta-Jones does not. She's out and out Welsh (with a bit of Irish).

You can take the girl out of Swansea...

[stray]

Yeah, I know she's welsh, but she's always come off as sort of mediterranean or even half-asian. Happens sometimes.

It's not like this is without precedent ...



... but there certainly are more Persian looking actors out there.

That is actually... the shit.  Never seen that movie.

[Evildrider]

Damn they could have got the guy that plays Sayid on Lost.  At least I'd have a reason to go see it, lol.

But Gyllenhal?  Really? Really?   

[stray]

Naveen Andrews is bad ass in everything I've seen him in, hell.. even as a psychopathic scientist who licks his lips at the site of testicles.. but I understand them not doing something like that. Prince of Persia is young and less unusual looking.

Oh well. Not sure why I care/or even posting here. I didn't even watch Tomb Raider or the RE movies, and those at least had good looking women.

[Evildrider]

Tomb raiders suck.  Angelina Jolie is eye candy, she's a shitty actor.

Resident Evil I saw cuz I'm a zombie movie fan.  The first one is worth watching, the second is meh.. the third is better then the second.

[Merusk]

It's not like this is without precedent ...<img>
... but there certainly are more Persian looking actors out there.

See, that's exactly the type of thing I was thinking of.  I can't help but want to mock the entire idea of John Wayne as Genghis Khan.  Who the hell thought that was a good idea?  A racist Hollywood in a racist America of the '50's.

[FatuousTwat]

Keanu has never looked anything but white to me. It didn't even occur to me that he was anything other than white, ever, and I have never before heard anyone say that he did.

[Hindenburg]

See, that's exactly the type of thing I was thinking of.  I can't help but want to mock the entire idea of John Wayne as Genghis Khan.  Who the hell thought that was a good idea?  A racist Hollywood in a racist America of the '50's.

Or you could throw a mongolian as Genghis and have the movie tank horribly. Gee, tough choice.

[DraconianOne]

No-one mentioning Lawrence of Arabia?

On the one hand they got Omar Sharif in to play one of the main Arabian characters - on the other they got Alec Guinness and Anthony Quinn also to play important Arabian roles.

What's worse is that they got an Irishman in to play an Englishman. 

[Mrbloodworth]

Why do i look at this guy and think "whiny bitch"? What was he in...was he at the "Party at the moon tower"?

[stray]

Keanu has never looked anything but white to me. It didn't even occur to me that he was anything other than white, ever, and I have never before heard anyone say that he did.

I knew he was mixed Asian (if you didn't know, he's Chinese/Hawaiian/British) when I must have only been 9 years old and saw Bill and Ted's. My ability to detect this, admittedly though, might be because I'm the same way. Kind of like a homosexual's gaydar (haha bad comparison). I used to spot people growing up early on like that, and made some friends that way.

[edit] A true shocker is Mark Gosselar (Zack Morris). He's part Indonesian. Or Kate Beckinsale (part Burmese). I don't see how you can't see it in Keanu Reeves though.

[Merusk]

See, that's exactly the type of thing I was thinking of.  I can't help but want to mock the entire idea of John Wayne as Genghis Khan.  Who the hell thought that was a good idea?  A racist Hollywood in a racist America of the '50's.

Or you could throw a mongolian as Genghis and have the movie tank horribly. Gee, tough choice.

 

I'm not saying they should have.  We are all prisoners of our culture and our timeframes.  In 50 years people are likely to look back and say "Wow, look how quaint. They feared Persians so much in the early 21st century they cast Caucasians in their roles." as we look back and do the same about John Wayne as Khan.  The more things change the more they stay the same.

[FatuousTwat]

Keanu has never looked anything but white to me. It didn't even occur to me that he was anything other than white, ever, and I have never before heard anyone say that he did.

I knew he was mixed Asian (if you didn't know, he's Chinese/Hawaiian/British) when I must have only been 9 years old and saw Bill and Ted's. My ability to detect this, admittedly though, might be because I'm the same way. Kind of like a homosexual's gaydar (haha bad comparison). I used to spot people growing up early on like that, and made some friends that way.

[edit] A true shocker is Mark Gosselar (Zack Morris). He's part Indonesian. Or Kate Beckinsale (part Burmese). I don't see how you can't see it in Keanu Reeves though.

I knew something about him being from Hawaii/part Hawaiian, but his Asian features are about as pronounced as my own (not very much at all, a bit of the eyes I guess).

[stray]

I guess he just looks like people I know, so it registers easier.

I'd say though that he leans on the whiter side of things, so I can kind of understand what you're saying. Sometimes that happens. There's an actress with the exact same mix and proportions as him (UK/HW/CHN) - Kelly Hu - yet she looks more Asian. [edit] umm on that note, i never saw the scorpion king. did she play an arab or something? because just to keep in with the thread, i'd say that'd be strange casting. she's ambiguous, but not arab like at all. then again, neither is the rock when it comes down to it.

[Evildrider]

She wasn't supposed to be arab, just an exotic sorceress type.

[stray]

"exotic sorceress", eh? well, it's a step up from angry kung-fu chick, i guess.