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News & ArtsMonday, November 10, 2008
Film / Hetero / 2008 Wonder Sister
Posted by Charles Mudede on Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 9:24 AM
Now that Obama is the president, black folks think they can do just about anything they want:
Beyonce wants to be Wonder Woman!Pop star Beyonce has said she wants to play Wonder Woman in a film of the comic book heroine.
The singer has met DC Comics and film studio Warner Bros to express her interest in future superhero roles on the big screen.
"I want to do a superhero movie and what would be better than Wonder Woman?" she told the Los Angeles Times.
"And it would be a very bold choice. A black Wonder Woman would be a powerful thing. It's time for that, right?"
What else do black folks think it's the right time for? Will Smith playing Captain America instead of his sidekick? There's even talk about a black James Bond. The world has dawg gone crazy.
1
I don't think it's crazy. Switching up the races for certain characters in the comicscape has already been done. What is crazy is that Beyonce thinks she can actually act.
My main pick for Wonder Woman is Rosario Dawson and will continue to be.
3
I'm just waiting for the day when black women are able to think that it's ok to actually have black hair (I don't mean just color, I mean all the nasty straighteners/relaxers/stuff people put in their hair to make it "flowy" like white people's hair). When all the black celebrity women look like they have "naturally curly" instead of *naturally curly* hair, how are ladies supposed to feel like they don't need all that junk? grr.
4
Dammit Charles, now you have me needing to watch that "Single Ladies" video again. AND it's stuck in my head before I've even gone there.
8
Switching up races isn't all that new, just look at Nick Fury.
Oh, and someone already posted this on Slog on Friday.
12
so a black person playing a white role is cool good and progressive. but a white person playing a black role (Mighty Heart anyone?) is racist
hrmmmm
13
I don't have a problem with a black Captain America. But I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH WILL SMITH! There are people who are black and are not Will Smith.
Also, fuck Smith and his Scientology.
14
@1 - Since when has acting ability had anything to do with who gets cast in superhero movies? It's generally about who looks good in the suit.
15
I guess one mitigating factor is that it might marginally increase the chance of the movie ever getting made at all, since it looks to be stillborn. That said, the people to ask about this are in the gay community, since WW is pretty much a gay camp icon more than any sort of successful comic book character - her monthly comic probably has a readership of about 4 people.
16
Though it's too late now, my dream was always for RuPaul to play Miss Diana Prince.
But, please just don't let it be Catherine Zeta Jones.
20
@14: Rosario could fill the suit like nobody's business. She's one of the reasons to watch Alexander with the sound off.
21
She already has the wonder twins in her booty, so as long as it is billed as WW & The Wonder Twins, go for it!
22
beyonce IS wonder woman.
rosario dawson has made two decent films:
KIDS
and a that small role she had in shattered glass.
she is aight, but beyonce is the truth.
man, i hate joe camel, i mean JAY-Z.
27
Please. People have been talking about Gina Torres for years. At least she can act and is a badass. Beyonce is no one's first choice for black Wonder Woman.
28
A black Captain America would actually work out well. Reminincent of the Tuskagee experiments, Will Smith's character would be a guinea pig for the super soldier serum.
The "real" Captain America would be a blond-haired blue eyed white dude who (because of Nazi sabotage) eventually goes insane from the serum. Will Smith is the only one who can stop him. Then he gets sent to Germany to fight the Nazis (and the racial prejudice of the soldiers in his unit!) for the rest of the film.
Meanwhile, stateside, the government uses stock footage and promotional pictures of the white dude because they won't admit Captain America is black.
And of course, Will Smith apparently dies in Anaractica fighting the Red Skull. And thus, the American public never finds out the original superhero was black... until...
Post-credit sequence, Tony Stark and Ultimate Nick Fury recover his ice-encased body to lead into the Avengers.
29
British theater and TV does a lot of "non-traditional" (and excellent) casting. I saw the great Clarke Peters as Billy Flynn in "Chicago" there. And Adrian Lester, who has played "white" Shakespearean leads at the Royal National Theater, has been campaigning pretty hard in recent interviews to be the first black Doctor in "Doctor Who" now that David Tennant has announced his departure.
30
andy@16, i i've been looking at so much reddit lately that i misread your suggestion as ron paul. and thanks for the accidentally hilarious image! too good!
31
@27 - Gina Torres! Yes! I love that woman. And if she can't play Wonder Woman, then she needs to play Vixen. (She already voiced the character for Justice League Unlimited. )
32
oh, and if beyonce wants to wear the most ridiculous costume in all of superhero history, i say: you go girl.
34
Apparently nobody remembers the Catwoman movie. A boring comic character played by a black actress does not instantly make a great movie.
Though I could easily stare at Beyonce's ass for 90 minutes.
36
Tracy Morgan already has the black Bond covered, like 10 years ago. His name is LaMonte Bond. He's scared of dogs and refuses to swim.
40
I think Will Smith would be great as Captain America.
And that it's time for a non-caucasian James Bond.
But, the end of the era of entitlement is over - every African-American child needs to buckle down, stay in school, and graduate from college.
You can dance to hip-hop and play b-ball all you want - AFTER you crack down and do your homework.
I'm serious. It's time. The world has changed, and you're a part of it now, and that means employers have to help with this instead of hiring only tokens and not mentoring kids all the way through school.
45
@42 - what, you don't like Will Smith?
Seriously, the change is a comin' and it's time to step up and be a man.
And anyone who doesn't get that - in the boardroom, or the hiring office, or on the streets - has not been paying attention.
This is what I hear on the all-black shows now.
46
@28. Been done, it was called Captain America: Red, White and Black. According to that comic book history the original experiments were conducted on a group of about 200 black soldiers who's families were informed they "died in a training accident." Only 8 survived and all but one died fighting the Nazis. Good mini-series.
47
@2... Wonder Woman is an Amazon, and the historically rumored Amazons were from somewhere East of Greece, in what's probably now the 'stans.
49
Adam Sandler wants to be James Brown!
"And it would be a very bold choice. A white, whiny, dorky James Brown would be a powerful thing. It's time for that, right?"
50
How come Hispanics and Asians get passed over for all the cool comic book roles? Asian's always get played up as some Kung-Fu Bruce Lee steryotype and I can't even think of any Hispanic comic book charachters.
Why does crazy weird freak-of-nature shit always happen to White & Black people?
Why does crazy weird freak-of-nature shit always happen to White & Black people?
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