1)Tyrese and John Singleton have been trying to do this film for years. Nothing has progressed and I hope it stays that way. Tyrese can keep bringing it up to mags and websites all he wants in order to make it appear as if he actually has new film opportunities on the horizon. Truth is he isn't in demand.
2)Tyrese is a good singer and a bad actor. His idols are Denzel and Will and he keeps expecting to have their careers. Why? He's a no-talent who doesn't even realize he is being used as a coon in the Transformer films. He makes Megan Fox almost look Meryl Streep-like. John Singleton has been propping up this guy for years and once made the absurd claim that Tyrese was the "black Tom Cruise". That is so wrong in so many ways I don't even have time to address it.
Well, isn't that what Hollywood in general does with black males these days anyways?? Try to make so ex-rapper, ex-thug, ex-anything but a new struggling actor with (gasp) REAL TALENT, into some star of their choosing. Tyrese is just another one of these pawns in that game of 'give me Mr. Right Now in order to get this flick done.' Of course he has no real talent as compared to several better known young black actors, but that's the business nowadays.
3)John Singleton is a hack director who appears to have had only one or two good films in him. Why would anyone be excited about him doing a Power Man movie with Tyrese? Bad actor, so-so director, and frankly a not very well developed super hero character. That's not a good mix. And chances are because of this the screenwriters who would get picked to write a script would be at the bottom of the talent pool. That would be four strikes against it, which would likely mean a disaster would be at hand.
I like J.S. if for no other reason that at least he is one of the few black directors out there TRYING to make a flick involving a black male lead. Who else are we to have? Antwon Fahrquar (or whatever his name)? But he's sort of like Spike Lee to me involving scripts. He's hit and miss. One could be a monster smash success, then he'll turn around and do something a little more obscure and lose his audience a bit. But that's the nature of the beast to me.
And in my experience, in recent years, superhero movies don't generally do well anyways if they aren't well known or perceived that way. Perfect example for me is Todd McFarlane's Spawn. The script was quite underdeveloped and the storyline in general only partially stuck to the comics. Now I think Michael Jai White pulled off Al Simmons/Spawn quite well, but in the director's cut video, Todd admitted that he had to shave off quite a bit of what he wanted to do to make the movie. I think the audience got cheated out of a blockbuster if anyone knows how much of a monster the hellspawn truly is. If we the audience were better students of these heroes, there would probably be bigger turnouts, much less a demand for better scripts. But Amercian racism kept some of these comic heroes under wraps for years.
5)Michael Clarke Duncan? Disposable, are you serious? As much as I don't care for Luke Cage he is still always portrayed as a young, muscle bound jock with super abilities. Typically he is shown to be a good looking guy, athletic-looking type of guy. These traits do not describe Michael Clark Duncan. Are there that few known black actors out there that folks keep tossing out names of guys totally wrong for roles? Like when some folks threw out Omar Epps and Taye Diggs to play Martin Luther King. WTF?
Remember, Hollywood has it's favorites for certain movies and roles that generally don't make ANY sense. They probably just don't know what to do with the big man most of the time.
6)I hate the new look of Luke Cage. Why? He is bald. Every damn black guy in comic books is increasing being shown with the shaved look. Bishop used to have flowing locks. Now he is bald. Luke cage used to have the big fro and then the mini-fro. Now he has no hair at all. Its as if the mostly non-black artists aren't invested in diversity of black male looks so they almost exclusively give all the black dudes the Avery Brooks look. Takes place in films too when Sam Jackson got cast as Shaft. I'm and sick and tired of this look. And its frustrating to see such types picked for black men in Hollywood. Whether folks like to admit or not hair has always been a part of what made a star a star. While some guys can get away with the shaved look all the time, to have most of the black male stars either be bald or given the short crop haircut is dumb IMO. Why would any actor want to have the same look every time That's another reason why I don't care for Tyrese either. His style is always the same and its always boring.
I've noticed this too over the years. But I've always felt like the people dictating the imagery of blacks in that town themselves probably aren't people of color. Diversity in appearance will only come when black writers, staff and producers step forward and take control of that imagery.
4)Cage's girlfriend is a white lady. But when Singleton looked as if he was on the verge of making the movie a few years back he made it known he was looking to cast a black actress to play the role of the girlfriend (but nonetheless keep the name and the occupation of the character the same). So once again we have a cowardly or dumbass black guy who shies away from any IR involving a black male and a white woman on screen. On the other hand the black hack director of Fantastic Four chose Kerry Washington to play the Thing's girlfriend even though in the comic the character is white. I love how these black directors will cast black actresses in roles written for white women but have no balls when they have the opportunity of showing a black male and white woman on the screen. Again, no thanks.
I left this one last on purpose. Where to begin. Well, are we really surprised at this point??? This is an old IR story. My thing is it seems like there's some type of IR watch dog keeping tabs someplace everytime there's even a hint that a black male is paired with a white female. And the black directors seem to have joined in by now. So either they end up casting a black female or get an obscure canadian, french or other white female to play the role. These concessions seem necessary because apparently there are an abundant number of racist white males out there who just can't stand the idea of a fine upstanding white woman being paired with ANY black male. Clearly we're that disgusting to them. But the age-old double standard relationship is in play and Miss Washington seems to have won the prize as one of the token black girl who dates or is married to some white dude in a flick these days. And as discussed on this board previously, generally she is more overt in exploring a sexual situation with that white guy than with a black dude that she's paired with!
But that's Hollywood again. Maybe they are just not ready to go the full-blown IR route with bm/ww. That would take a major commitment anyway, especially during this economic downturn. Maybe Hollywood just can't risk alienating it's core white audience, who we know by now is clearly bothered by such a relationship. But there must be something said for sticking to the storyline. As I stated earlier with Spawn, Todd McFarlane wasted no time in casting D.B.Sweeney as Al Simmons friend and new husband to his ex Wanda (Theresa Randall) and father to his daughter Cyan. Hollywood seemed to be on board with that move rather quickly. So clearly it's institutionalized within the industry. And unfortunately doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon.
Sorry about the lengthy reply, btw.
