The Horse and His Boy

The accent really won't be the issue. The issue is the middle-eastern/Indian culture of Calormen and the darker skin of the people there.
 
benny said:
i actually think the girl in prince of persia whould be good for aravis.. though shes a little old haha
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Gemma Arterton is White. She was 'tanned' for her role in the movie which has all sorts of... unfortunate implications.

Arvan said:
For some reason, making Aravis white seems more racist to me than Lewis's Calormenes are often considered. It'd be like they were afraid of demonstrating an interracial marriage.
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That would be the reason why. They might try to justify it along the lines of making the story more PC by making the Calormens White, but the bottom line will be that making a film with a non-White girl as protagonist who ends up marrying a White boy in the end is something that Hollywood will balk at.

Aravis Kenobi said:
Simply because someone is white, doesn't mean they're disqualified. There are white people in this world who don't actually look "white", but they aren't classified as any other race.

You can cast someone who is a dark white. They might be darker, but they're still white.
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I think it's interesting that for a story that is repeatedly criticized for being racist, Lewis actually did something very daring by making Aravis a co-protagonist of the story, and ending it with an interracial marriage that produced a child that was the greatest King of Archenland. I agree with Arvan that this will be primarily the reason why Aravis might end up being played by a White actress (tanned, of course) probably against a back-drop of clearly non-White characters (or rather a sliding scale of non-Whiteness with Rabadash, the Tisroc and the Vizier being the most blatantly non-White and everyone else being somewhere in between). Sort of like the way in the Prince of Persia movie, the heroes were played by White actors and the only major character who was not played by a White actor was the villain who was played by a British actor of Iranian descent. Or like in the Last Airbender movie where Katara and Sokka, the darkest-skinned major characters were played by White people while Zuko and the Fire Nation - who were the lightest skinned characters in the cartoon - went to non-White people. And there will be all sorts of convoluted explanations for why the role could only be played by this White person and how this person 'looks' the part and it doesn't really matter anyway, without ever dealing with the underlying racism behind the decision.

It gets even more disturbing when fans of the source material defend the casting decision. I am recalling the way some Avatar fans backlashed against the racebending movement. It's ironic now, because the argument then was that the actors picked were the 'best for the part' and when the film came out, one of the biggest criticisms was on the acting skills.
 
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Hmmm...horse and his boy. The best book in the series. :rolleyes: I love it. It's different to the other books, and that made it all the more special and real for me. :)
 
moonspinner said:
That would be the reason why. They might try to justify it along the lines of making the story more PC by making the Calormens White, but the bottom line will be that making a film with a non-White girl as protagonist who ends up marrying a White boy in the end is something that Hollywood will balk at.
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There is no reason why they should be afraid of showing an interracial marriage, guys. Look at all the interracial on-screen relationships from shows and movies. If they gave that as an excuse, it doesn't hold water.
 
In my opinion, it would be a travesty to have a white person playing Aravis. These issues should be handled exactly as they are portrayed in the book.
 
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DAVID GALLICO said:
In my opinion, it would be a travesty to have a white person playing Aravis. These issues should be handled exactly as they are portrayed in the book.
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I agree! Many people are all concerned about racism in the book. (I think it's silly, but still...) It would offend me and come across as racist if a white girl played Aravis.
 
Without reading 21 pages of previous posts, I'll add in my comments here. I hope that they will get around to adapting THHB to film some time soon, although they'll need to at least do the Silver Chair beforehand if they know what's good for them. :D

Anyway, HHB is probably my favorite of all of the Narnian novels. I just hope they don't screw it up and add stuff like they do in most movies. :p
 
imkingdavid said:
Without reading 21 pages of previous posts, I'll add in my comments here. I hope that they will get around to adapting THHB to film some time soon, although they'll need to at least do the Silver Chair beforehand if they know what's good for them. :D

Anyway, HHB is probably my favorite of all of the Narnian novels. I just hope they don't screw it up and add stuff like they do in most movies. :p
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Now that we know almost for certain that they're continuing with the Narnia franchise, we have hope for HHB!!! :D
 
Aravis Kenobi said:
Um yeah, I think you kinda have the books mixed up.

My favorite part that will be unforgivable should it be left out is when Shasta and Aslan talk in chapter 11.
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The best part was when he told him how he was the cat that comforted him during the night, and he saved him from the jackals...I got chills when I read that part because Shasta thought he was so unlucky when in reality Aslan was guiding him the right way the whole time...remind you of someone? ;)
 
Oh yeah; that's why I love HHB so incredibly much. You could have put my name in for Shasta's at a lot of times in my life. ;) :D
 
moonspinner said:
I think they are doing MN so they can bring in Tilda Swinton and bookend the series with her so (hopefully? :p) they might not be doing HHB.
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That was not my impression, but since I don't have information either way, I won't argue.
 
moonspinner said:
I think they are doing MN so they can bring in Tilda Swinton and bookend the series with her so (hopefully? :p) they might not be doing HHB.
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I agree with you. I think this is just their way of ending the series. I hope I'm wrong, but this looks pretty bad to me.
 
LOL Aravis, don't trust them...

And frankly, I don't. At least they got LWW right, but I don't want them to mess with HHB because it's my favorite. And considering my reaction to VDT (which isn't really a favorite book of mine), I'd hate to see myself if they bungled HHB!

If they do get that far, I think that they can adapt it well, if they actually try. It's a simple storyline, with some very cinematic possibilities (epic battle, cut-aways, etc.)
 
MissReepicheep said:
That was not my impression, but since I don't have information either way, I won't argue.
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It's the only reason I can think of... why they will skip the logical next book (chronologically and according to publication) with everything that implies (actor's age, breaking the Caspian Trilogy, etc.) and jump to MN.

Aravis Kenobi said:
Though since HHB is my favorite, I'm glad they won't be doing it.
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My sentiments exactly! :D :D :D
 
I actually remember reading in the making-of-the-movie book that their contemplated movie-order had MN before SC.

This is only my memory, of course. I tried to find that part in the book, but I couldn't find it. And it took every ounce of self-control not to start reading the entire book cover to cover. :rolleyes:
 
I think they may be doing MN first to connect audiences back to the first film. You get the white witch and the lamppost , both used in Disney's marketing. They may use MN to win the audience back after having to res-erect VDT from Disney's hands.
 
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