Marvel's SHANG-CHI First "Asian Super-Hero Movie," Looks for "Ethnically Appropriate" Director

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AndyDursin
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Marvel's SHANG-CHI First "Asian Super-Hero Movie," Looks for "Ethnically Appropriate" Director

#1 Post by AndyDursin »

DisneyMarvelLucasfilm continues on the SJW brigade, announcing a Marvel movie with a character next to nobody has ever heard of. Now, it's better than the 6th Spider-Man iteration, but this notion they HAVE to hire someone based on the color of their skin is, really, racist by itself.

Here's the breathlessly PC Deadline announcement, including a discussion of how "monumental" BLACK PANTHER was to mankind:
EXCLUSIVE: Marvel Studios is fast-tracking Shang-Chi to be its first superhero movie tentpole franchise with an Asian protagonist. The studio has set Chinese-American scribe Dave Callaham to write the screenplay, and Deadline hears Marvel is already looking at a number of Asian and Asian-American directors who want to do something as potentially monumental as was accomplished in Marvel’s first viable Best Picture candidate, Black Panther. That film tied into African and African American cultures and the sensibilities of its nearly all-black cast, with a black director in Ryan Coogler and writer in Joe Robert Cole. The goal here is to do a similar thing: introduce a new hero who blends Asian and Asian American themes, crafted by Asian and Asian American filmmakers.

After Marvel Studios’ unparalleled decade of success following Iron Man, many have wondered how Kevin Feige’s next iterations of superhero franchises will distinguish themselves. Clearly an important theme will be ethnic diversity and inclusion, in front of and behind the camera.

Callaham has strong credentials in the superhero and franchise-building realms and his own experiences as a Chinese-American will inform the Shang-Chi movie mythology, sources said. His recent work includes co-writing with Patty Jenkins and Geoff Johns the upcoming DC Warner Bros sequel Wonder Woman 1984, and he is writing Sony’s animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2. He also wrote initial drafts of Zombieland 2, which begins production in January, and created and produced Amazon’s recent action comedy series Jean-Claude Van Johnson, starring Jean- Claude Van Damme. Callaham also created the Expendables franchise as well as the story for the Legendary’s Godzilla reboot.

He’s got two comedies at Netflix: Callaham wrote the Black List-ed dark comedy caper script Jackpot, which Will Gluck will direct; and he wrote and is producing with Channing Tatum, Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, and Archer’s Adam Reed and Matt Thompson, the animated comedy America: The Motion Picture. Thompson is directing.

Shang-Chi first appeared in Special Marvel Edition #15 in December 1973, hatched by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin. The script will modernize the hero to avoid stereotypes that many comic characters of that era were saddled with. The comic launched around the time that Enter the Dragon became a global sensation and martial arts films raged. In the comics, Shang-Chi is the son of China-based globalist who raised and educated his progeny in his reclusive China compound, closed off to the outside world. The son trained in the martial arts and developed unsurpassed skills. He is eventually introduced to the outside world to do his father’s bidding, and then has to come to grips with the fact his revered father might not be the humanitarian he has claimed to be and is closer to what others call him: The Devil’s Doctor. He also might be centuries old. The deceit makes them bitter enemies.

Marvel Studios has worked with a stable of talented filmmakers from diverse backgrounds including Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, directing next year’s Captain Marvel with Brie Larson; Coogler, directing the Black Panther sequel; Taika Waititi, who directed Thor: Ragnarok; Chloé Zhao, who will direct The Eternals; and Cate Shortland, who will direct a stand-alone film for Marvel staple Black Widow starring Scarlett Johansson.

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Re: Marvel's SHANG-CHI Fist "Asian Super-Hero Movie," Looks for "Ethnically Appropriate" Director

#2 Post by John Johnson »

I remember the comic. It was one of the UK comics I used to buy back in the 70s.

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Re: Marvel's SHANG-CHI Fist "Asian Super-Hero Movie," Looks for "Ethnically Appropriate" Director

#3 Post by Monterey Jack »

AndyDursin wrote: Mon Dec 03, 2018 4:53 pmNow, it's better than the 6th Spider-Man iteration, but this notion they HAVE to hire someone based on the color of their skin is, really, racist by itself.
Pre-frickin'-cisely. :? How about the BEST GUY FOR THE JOB? Someone who knows how to shoot and edit a good martial-arts sequence? Gareth Evans may be white and Welsh, but he directed some of the best martial-arts action sequences in recent memory for the Raid movies. And Steven Spielberg may be white and Jewish, but he did an exemplary job directing both The Color Purple and Amistad, no matter how much Spike Lee bitched about the latter. :roll: Expect to see EVERY major technical department, from cinematography to music to costume design, headed by an Asian dude. There are tons of seasoned male action directors who could have made a much more visually-snappy version of Wonder Woman, but no, let's go for the bravura visual stylist Patty Jenkins. :lol:

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Re: Marvel's SHANG-CHI Fist "Asian Super-Hero Movie," Looks for "Ethnically Appropriate" Director

#4 Post by jkholm »

I'm shaking my head that Disney is not trying to hide the fact that they're going to hire a director purely based on ethnicity. You know who would be a great choice for this movie? Quentin Tarantino. I don't really care for his movies any more but come on...a superhero movie based on a cult comic book hero from the 70s that was inspired by kung-fu movies? That's perfect for Tarantino but too bad, he's not Asian.

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Re: Marvel's SHANG-CHI Fist "Asian Super-Hero Movie," Looks for "Ethnically Appropriate" Director

#5 Post by AndyDursin »

Absolutely right guys. I mean, our son is Chinese-American -- I just don't think he has an innate understanding of kung-fu. And it's kind of racist (actually, it's completely racist) for someone to just look at him and think that he does or will, but I'm sure it's going to happen at some point. :roll:

I second the notion that Tarantino, though I'm not a fan, but would be a good choice -- but you know they would never give a director that kind of freedom.

This is a shrewd, calculated PR move from Disney which is borderline obsessed with being "woke" in today's climate...but make no mistake, it's really all about the $$$. They must have looked at the box-office for CRAZY RICH ASIANS also and decided there's an untapped market there to exploit domestically (to say nothing of Chinese box-office).

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Re: Marvel's SHANG-CHI First "Asian Super-Hero Movie," Looks for "Ethnically Appropriate" Director

#6 Post by Paul MacLean »

AndyDursin wrote: Tue Dec 04, 2018 11:30 am Absolutely right guys. I mean, our son is Chinese-American -- I just don't think he has an innate understanding of kung-fu. And it's kind of racist (actually, it's completely racist) for someone to just look at him and think that he does or will, but I'm sure it's going to happen at some point. :roll:
That's what bothers me -- that and the mindset that lumps the hugely distinctive cultures of Asia into one generic group, and that a person whose ancestry hails from Burma must somehow be an expert on the culture and traditions of Mongolia. :roll:

I'm reminded of Memoirs of a Geisha, in which Japanese characters were played by Chinese actresses (with Chinese accents)!

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Re: Marvel's SHANG-CHI Fist "Asian Super-Hero Movie," Looks for "Ethnically Appropriate" Director

#7 Post by Monterey Jack »

AndyDursin wrote: Tue Dec 04, 2018 11:30 am I second the notion that Tarantino, though I'm not a fan, but would be a good choice -- but you know they would never give a director that kind of freedom.
I remember, in that four-year gap between the Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig eras, how Tarantino wanted to make Casino Royale with Brosnan...but as a 60's period piece, and in B&W. Then Sony fired Brosnan...and made Casino Royale as the next Bond movie, and with a B&W opening sequence! :shock:

Anyways, I'm glad to see Tarantino not make that film, as the idea of a PG-13 movie from him is just baffling (same thing with that "Hard-R" Star Trek movie that will likely never happen). Some filmmakers are just too idiosyncratic to "play ball" by altering their signature style to appease a big studio's mandated franchise template. It's the same reason I'm glad, in retrospect, that Edgar Wright did not end up directing Ant-Man. His version of that film would no doubt have been so heavily diltued by the inevitable Disney meddling that it wouldn't have been a "pure" Wright movie (and we probably wouldn't have gotten the splendid Baby Driver had he made that film). It's every bit as racist to insist a film about a minority leading character be helmed by a director of the same ethnicity than it is to pretend that minorities don't exist, especially with fat-cat white dudes holding the MCU purse strings. It's like the "whitewashing" controversy about the casting of Scarlett Johannsson in Ghost In The Shell, despite the fact that the majority of Japanese people polled about it preferring to see her in the role! Or how Speedy Gonzalez cartoons were banned from TV for fears of being branded "racist", then Mexican viewers called up TV stations to complain...not because of the cartoons' content, but because they were taken off TV, because Speedy is the frigging HERO of his shorts!

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Re: Marvel's SHANG-CHI First "Asian Super-Hero Movie," Looks for "Ethnically Appropriate" Director

#8 Post by AndyDursin »

We are living in very strange times.

When you have BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE being removed from a few Christmas radio playlists because some crackpots think it's a "date rape song," you know you've got a problem.

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Re: Marvel's SHANG-CHI First "Asian Super-Hero Movie," Looks for "Ethnically Appropriate" Director

#9 Post by Monterey Jack »

AndyDursin wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 8:32 pm We are living in very strange times.

When you have BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE being removed from a few Christmas radio playlists because some crackpots think it's a "date rape song," you know you've got a problem.
Not to mention Apu getting banned from The Simpsons for being a "negative stereotype"...on a show that consists of NOTHING but broad stereotypes. What, Scottish people don't have a problem with Groundskeeper Willie? Rednecks don't have a problem with Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel?


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Re: Marvel's SHANG-CHI First "Asian Super-Hero Movie," Looks for "Ethnically Appropriate" Director

#11 Post by Monterey Jack »



"Only in theaters". :)

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Re: Marvel's SHANG-CHI First "Asian Super-Hero Movie," Looks for "Ethnically Appropriate" Director

#12 Post by Paul MacLean »

Monterey Jack wrote: Mon Apr 19, 2021 12:07 pm "Only in theaters". :)
It's going to take more than a formulaic MCU flick to get me into a cinema.

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Re: Marvel's SHANG-CHI First "Asian Super-Hero Movie," Looks for "Ethnically Appropriate" Director

#13 Post by AndyDursin »

This is exactly what I've expected -- the movie theaters left are going to be showing Disney blockbusters and little else. I don't think it's a model that's going to last for many of them.

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Re: Marvel's SHANG-CHI First "Asian Super-Hero Movie," Looks for "Ethnically Appropriate" Director

#14 Post by mkaroly »

Pass on theaters then.

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Re: Marvel's SHANG-CHI First "Asian Super-Hero Movie," Looks for "Ethnically Appropriate" Director

#15 Post by Monterey Jack »

This will be the first Pandemic-era movie to cross the $200 million threshold in theaters. :) If a totally unknown hero like Shang-Chi can do that (especially premiering over the Labor Day weekend), then Spider-Man: No Way home might be able to bully its way to $300 mil, especially as it's obvious no one's getting scared off by the Delta boogeyman (except those pussies at Paramount :?).

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