More Movie Disappointment

[Liamane]

So, even MORE failure... From M. Night fans:

Aasif Mandvi (far left) will play the role of Commander Zhao, the ambitious and hot-tempered Fire Nation commander.

Shaun Toub (middle left), from Iron Man and Crash fame, was cast as Uncle Iroh, the retired Fire Nation general and devoted surrogate parent Zuko.

Cliff Curtis (middle right), of acclaimed films like Training Day and The Insider, will play the ruthless ruler Fire Lord Ozai.

In addition, Keong Sim (far right) has been cast in the role of Earthbending Father. Whatever role that is...

www.mnightfans.com/

That's really the last straw, methinks.

[Spode]

You better have a good reason for hating them.

All of them are good actors.

I want to know who "Earthbending Father" is though.

I wonder if they're going to make Tryo younger. I hope not.

I kind of want to see a shop of the Ozai guy with longer hair.

[Liamane]

Whaaaaat? All of the choices were terrible; I honestly hate all of the actor choices. And who the heck is an Earthbending Father? What kind of role is that?

The huge letdown is Shaun Toub, he looks nothing like Zuko. He was such an ass in Crash.

[Spode]

Shawn Toub isn't even Zuko?

Well looks like you're starting to become a minority now.

A lot of people starting to look forward to this movie after seeing this and the casting locations.

[Liamane]

I mean, he doesn't look like he could pass for a relative of Zuko. Neither does Cliff, for that matter. Aasif looks like the only one that could pass for a relative of Zuko.

And who are you talking about? Everyone I've talked with feels like the casting calls are complete trash. The casting directors even treat the extras like crap. From M. Night fans:

Hollywood searching for Mongolians in Northern Virginia . . .

An odd premise, but it explains why a casting director is draping a beige smock over a cute Mongolian American boy in an apartment building in Rosslyn.

"We'll make you look like a warrior," the casting director with dirty-blond curls tells the boy. She holds up a camera and says, "Now don't smile."

"Smile!" calls the boy's father, who was born in Ulan Bator.

"No, he shouldn't smile," a casting assistant tells him. "They don't like people to smile because it's not how you really look."

[Beebs]

Mar 25, 2009 9:52:27 GMT -6 @Liamane said:

Whaaaaat? All of the choices were terrible; I honestly hate all of the actor choices. And who the heck is an Earthbending Father? What kind of role is that?

The huge letdown is Shaun Toub, he looks nothing like Zuko. He was such an ass in Crash.

What does appearance have to do with acting ability?

It's obvious they're not trying to get actors that look like the actual characters, and to be honest none of the family in ATLA look all that similar in the first place, so what's the point of complaining at this point? What I don't get is why Ozai was supposedly cast this early...

And you're crazy if you don't think Curtis doesn't resemble Patel enough to play his father, and Toub isn't all that different looking either. I mean, who's even to say Iroh and Ozai are blood brothers, and not half? I wouldn't put it past Sozin. Regardless, they're going the Indian route with casting of the Fire Nation, which is just because if they were from Iraq it would be too controversial. Though the paleness factor is disrespected by the adaptation, Earthly races aren't in th ATLA universe, so it doesn't matter if the regions still have a common race.

[Liamane]

Disregarding race, I still don't think that Toub would be a fitting Uncle Iroh. It's entirely opinionated, just as someone could say Robert Pattinson is an extremely impressive actor. It's a matter of personal taste. Whether or not he can do a sufficient job of portraying Iroh is beyond me, but in the end, to me at least, it just doesn't seem to fit. I feel the same about all of the recent casting picks.

[Beebs]

It's one thing to have an opinion, but it's another to be opinionated without even knowing the acting skill of the actor.

[Liamane]

I've seen Shaun Toub in Crash, Iron Man and the Nativity Story (Don't ask...), and in two out of three of the films, he plays a deviant character of sorts. Whether or not his depiction of both roles instills this darker image in my mind, I feel as though he wouldn't play a good Iroh, who's supposed to be a lighthearted older man.

I've also seen Cliff Curtis in a few movies, and I'll be totally honest when I say I didn't like him... at all.

[Beebs]

It's pre-judgment or typecasting either way, so we really have no idea how their performances will be in this, so I'm not going to cast any stones. I can see Toub as a form of Iroh, but certainly not one reflecting that of the series... in all honesty I don't think Iroh makes much sense to begin with. His personalities are like completely bipolar. In terms of look and feel, can't see it sticking to the original entirely, which might not be bad. As for his performances, he was convincing in Crash (alright in Ironman, I suppose), so we know he CAN act, so maybe he'd give a good performance in this too.

And for Curtis, he looks enough like Patel while still remaining pretty insidious, and I'm not sure of his caliber in performances, but I can see him working out.

Mandvi was pretty good in Jericho, and I could see him as Zhao is he would deepen his voice just a bit, because he's got this great subtle-crackly thing going. And Sim... well, not much acting experience, but I don't particularly care because of the ambiguity of the role. The thing that concerns me is making the Earth Kingdom Asian... what the heck do they plan on making the Air Nomads? I suppose they could be like gypsies, in theory...

The casting is pretty much what I expected, in terms of quality and name-recognition. I mean, come on, we weren't expecting any Oscar-winners to be in this production, most of M. Night's movies have a couple of "brand-name" stars and that's it. Of course, celebrities do like their children movies... (Oh God, please no "John Travolta as the voice of Appa")