At first glance, Ang Lee's Oscar-nominated film The Life of Pi and Danny Boyle's Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire seem to have very little in common save two things: their casts are predominantly Indian, and they are bona fide global blockbusters.
However, looking more closely, one sees that neither film really the ingredients for a "traditional" Hollywood blockbuster; there were no name actors, neither was based on a widely-known pop-culture property such as Harry Potter or the Transformers,(although both films were based on successful novels), and also both were ultimately feel-good movies, they quite conspicuously broke a number of Hollywood conventions, perhaps one of the most conspicuous of which is that there are no Americans in either film, whether as characters or actors (the white guy in Life of Pi was a Canadian played by a British actor), and no Westerners (i.e. Americans or British) in lead roles.
About the only "traditional" blockbuster ingredients of Life of Pi were the heavy use of digital visual effects and the now virtually-ubiquitous 3-D.
The fact that each of these movies managed to earn around $400 million around the world (Slumdog slightly less, Life of Pi much more) despite the absence of most traditional blockbuster ingredients is a remarkable development that, to my mind at least, suggests that global movie audiences are ready for greater variety in their blockbusters. Not only that, but it goes to show that when giving movies the green light studios would be wise to think way beyond the shores of North America. Even "traditional" Hollywood blockbusters these days get most of their bank from outside the United States and Canada. Of the top 20 worldwide blockbusters, only one, The Dark Knight, earned more from its North American grosses than from the rest of the world. That is a remarkable statistic considering that decades ago, most Hollywood studios were principally preoccupied with how American audiences would embrace their movies.
One might even argue that the need to pander to white Americans, which is the logic behind the controversial "whitewashing," or the practice of replacing Asian characters with Caucasian ones so that white actors can play their roles, a practice which has stained several Hollywood productions such as the 21, Dragonball: Evolution,and The Last Airbender, is no longer necessary to ensure a film's box-office viability.
The fact that both Slumdog Millionaire and Life of Pi have each handily out-grossed each and every one of the aforementioned films at the global box-office, apart from the wide critical acclaim they have garnered, should, in my humble opinion anyway, give Hollywood executives plenty to think about the next time they option a popular property that doesn't have an American or a white person in the lead role.
For example, author Neil Gaiman's popular novel Anansi Boys was recently optioned as a possible motion picture, but according to reports the producers wanted to replace the book's predominantly black cast with a white one, despite the fact that Anansi is actually an African Spider god and the movie is about his two sons. In a wonderful display of creative integrity, Gaiman reportedly said no to the whitewash. Of course, one hopes the producers will consider more choices for casting the role than Will Smith.
The possibilities are actually pretty exciting, when one really thinks about it; maybe now Hollywood might actually consider casting the long-planned-but-now-stuck-in-development-hell live-action adaptation of Akira with, if not Japanese actors, then actors of Japanese descent, should talks to make the adaptation ever resume. Maybe in a few years suits will see that there's no need for a whitewash.
The bottom line: it's becoming increasingly clear that it's no longer just the Americans' dollars that matter to Hollywood, which remains the world's favorite purveyor of motion pictures, and this means that we non-Americans out here now have reason to hope that when they make those motion pictures we love, we can actually start to see actual, rather than token, diversity on the screen.
I think it's white middle america they are pandering to and it's that audience they believe that can't take non-whites
ReplyDelete...or perhaps those emanating from the so-called "Red States," though I suppose there's a great deal of overlap between those two. What really blows my mind is how, after the success of people like Eddie Murphy and Will Smith, studio execs feel they have to make such concessions instead of just adapting the work as it was originally written/conceived.
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