The latest developments in the Avatar live action movie casting debacle... Aasif Mandvi, Shaun Toub, Cliff Curtis and Keong Sim have joined the cast of M. Night Shyamalan's big screen adaptation of the popular Nickelodeon animated series: Four more land roles in Shyamalan's "Airbender."
Mandvi will play the Fire Nation's Commander Zhao, Curtis will play the Fire Lord Ozai, and Toub is cast as Uncle Iroh, a retired Fire Nation general. Sim will play Earthbending Father. I don't know what any of that means, but I'm assuming these are not main characters.
What, now Paramount wants to add a little brown and yellow to the movie? These guys are all fine actors (Cliff Curtis is a particular favorite of mine), but let's be real -- this is obviously an afterthought, and they're now filling roles with a bunch of South Asian-looking characters.
The fact of the matter is, the film's starring roles are still mostly white. And the fan protests continue. Personally, at this point I doubt they'll be changing anyone in the cast. We're looking at an extremely ridiculous Avatar movie in our future. The momentum will soon shift from protest to boycott...
The new official website for the movement is racebending.com, where they've got the full roundup of news, resources and tips on what you can do to help protest the movie. You can start by signing the online petition. It'll help them to get a head count of who's on board.
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