Director Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, Red Hook Summer) responded on Saturday to a reported casting call for his planned Oldboy remake that lists one character of Asian lineage. The Angry Asian Man blog posted an unverified casting call with one character listed as "Asian," although it also has another character of "open ethnicity."
The Casting Call is as follows:
OLDBOY
Feature Film
SAG-AFTRA
Director: Spike Lee
Exec. Producer: Spike Lee
Producers: Nathan Kahane, Doug Davison, Roy Lee, John Powers Middleton
Co-Producer/Writer: Mark Protosevich
Screen Play: Jo-Yun, Chun-hyung Lim, Chan-wook Park
Casting Director: Kim Coleman
Casting Associate: Jackie Sollitto
Casting Assistant: Keisha Richardson
Callbacks: Aug. 12, 2012 (Sunday)
Shooting / Start: October 1, 2012
Location: New Orleans
SUBMIT ELECTRONICALLY
[WALLACE SHARKEY] Male, 60ish, Caucasian. Joe's well-tailored, slickster boss.
[DONNA HAWTHORNE] Female, Mid 20s, Caucasian. Joe's ex-wife and mother of Mia. Once a homecoming queen, now a stripped down hardworking single mom.
[DAVE BERMAN] Mid 40s to 50s. African-American. Shlubby, but very welthy businessman. Joe hits on his much younger girlfriend.
[ASIAN WOMAN] Female, Early to mid 20s, Asian. A mysterious exotic beauty sitting at the bar observing Joe. MARTIAL ARTS EXPERIENCE A PLUS
[CHUCKY] Male, Mid 40s, Caucasian. A free spirited likeable human teddy bear who sports loud vintage Hawaiian shirts. Joe’s best friend.
[BROWNING] Male. Caucasian. Small in stature. A career criminal with pockmarked skin.
[CORTEZ] Latin male. 50s. A bullishly strong street thug/criminal.
[JAKE PRESTON] Male, Mid 30s to mid 40s, Caucasian. A clean cut tough looking former cop; the no-nonsense host of the TV show "Unsolved Crimes."
[ADULT MIA] Female, Early 20s, Caucasian. A musical prodigy on cello. Sensitive, intelligent, beautiful but humble. CELLO EXPERIENCE A PLUS.
[GRACE] Female, 50s, African American. A drug addicted nutcase in the Mobile Hospital.
[JOHNNY] Male, Mid 40s to 50s, Caucasian. A disheveled, schizophrenic man who is on the street near the Mobile Hospital unit.
[A BURLY MAN] Male, 40s, Caucasian. Muscular and serious with close-cropped hair.
[THE CHECKPOINT] Male, 40s, Open Ethnicity. A serious looking sort (probably trying to hold down two or three jobs to support his family) who is sitting at a desk in the underground parking garage.
[EDWINA BURKE] Female, Late 50s to early 60s, Caucasian, distinguished-looking. She is from Evergreen Academy where Joe attended school. She is tough, smart, and very much a lady, but a lonely one.
[SECURITY GUARD] Male, 40s to 50s, Caucasian. The guard at Evergreen Academy that patrols the grounds and takes his job a bit more seriously than he needs to.
[AMANDA PRYCE] Female, 14, Caucasian. Adrian's younger sister. She is pretty, yet shy and a bit awkward-looking.
[YOUNG JOE DOUCETTE] Male, 17, Caucasian. A young Josh Brolin.
A Twitter follower asked Lee to comment on the reported casting call's ethnicity listings, and Lee responded:
People You Need To Relax.The Cast Of OLD BOY Will Be Diverse.If You Think Otherwise You Do Not Know My Work.Bother Other Directors 'Bout Dat
Actor Josh Brolin (Milk, Men in Black 3), actor Sharlto Copley (District 9, The A-Team), and actress Elizabeth Olsen (Silent House, Martha Marcy May Marlene) have been attached to this planned remake of Park Chan-Wook's live-action film Oldboy, which is itself an adaptation of Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi's manga.
Lee specifically addressed the reported casting call's character descriptions of "women of color [as] 'drug addicted nutcases' and 'mysterious exotic beauties'":
All That Stuff Has Been Changed.
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