I'm not saying they couldn't have found a "brown dude" for the job, I'm saying they likely couldn't have found a "brown dude" for the job with the same cultural caché, something you neglected to address in your rebuttal to my comments and an important contextual element to what I said.JimB said:The problem is there is a reasonable inference to be made that the list qualities looked for in a star for the film could include "is white and won't scare off anyone afraid of people who wouldn't be allowed in the Klan." In an industry where tropes like the Magical Negro and the Bechdel Test are real things, it's just kind of sad to see one of the most Anglo-Saxon men in movies today getting cast as a genetically Middle-Eastern person living in an African nation. They really couldn't have found a brown dude for the job? Yeah, okay.Rellik San said:Yes, Christian Bale doesn't look like our preconceived notions of what someone from that time looks like, but surely this should be a case of best man for the job. Whatever you think of Bale, he got through the casting process [and] was obviously what the production wanted.
So you're saying we need to attack an "atmosphere" and "studios" but not the people who contribute to those things, as if they exist independently of the people comprising them? Why? Because Ridley Scott is so powerless he can't make a movie on his name alone and has to bow to the pressure of evil "atmospheres" and "studios" forcing him against his will to cast Batman as Moses?Rellik San said:This isn't an issue of Scott's casting being on the nose of a hot button issue; instead of demonising him, perhaps we should turn our attentions to the studios that created that atmosphere.
But as I said a film this expensive doesn't get made without a certain degree of studio say so. Ridley Scott is a powerful name for sure, but regardless of the director, the studios will do whatever they can to minimise risk, it's the nature of the industry as it stands, so whilst Bales casting is eye brow raising, I doubt it's entirely down to Scotts choice and that the studio even with the most powerful and influential directors will insist on certain conditions, including "You must hire X amount of "brand name actor" or we won't give you funding." So yes, the studio system is to blame more than you think.