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21 - the film | casting woes...
Vegas. Gambling. Money. Aw, man, not another Vegas film? Yeah, but it's about brilliant math geeks playing the game. 21 stars Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe), Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth (Blue Crush), and Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix), and will be released March 28, 2008.
21 is based on Bringing Down the House, the best-selling book by Ben Mezrich, about the true story of a group of gifted MIT students who headed to Vegas every weekend to count cards and employ an intricate system of signals to beat the casinos. (Damn, should've stayed in Kumon!)
Now, there are grumblings about 21 's casting -- controversy! The main characters in the book were mostly Asian Americans in real life (the character Jason Lewis is based on Jeff Ma; and Jason Fisher is based on Mike Aponte). Now, Jim Sturgess doesn't look Asian to me. It doesn't matter that he might be described as having "almond-shaped eyes".
You guessed it, studio execs cast mostly white characters (alongside Aaron Yoo and Liza Lapira). Ben Mezrich, the author of the book, has stated that the scheme worked because a young white man betting large amounts of money would have stood out, while a young Asian (or other minority) would be less conspicuous. Meh, what do you expect from Hollywood? After all, it's about the money game.
More: Official site of 21 | Angry Asian Man's take on 21 | sourced from MIT Alumnus and ‘Busting Vegas’ Author Describe Experience of Beating the House @ MIT's The Tech | Hacking Las Vegas: The Inside Story of the MIT Blackjack Team's Conquest of the Casinos by Ben Mezrich @ Wired | Ben Mezrich's Official site | 21 trailer here and under the cut | Interview with Aaron Yoo @ IGN | Racilicious: Trans-Racialization in 21 by Jenn Fang |
21 trailer:
Aaron Yoo and Liza Lapira
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Comments
Yeah, what most people missed while voicing their anger at the "white-washing" of the characters is that the MIT blackjack team specifically recruited non-white students (either Asian or Middle Eastern) for the reasons you mention above.
In any case, I didn't think the book was all that great to begin with, so I'll probably skip the movie as well.
Well, it's all about Hollywood dumbing down movies to cater to society, which is becoming less and less intelligent.
wow i was totally unaware. what a crying shame. there are lots of talented asian-american actors that couldve played those roles. too bad.
March 26, 2008 at 6:23 AM
Comments (3)
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