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Why not make an Indian version of the King Arthur legend?

posted 3 years ago by kwestmo (4161)
6 replies | jump to latest

Obviously, it would make sense to film an Indian version of the King Arthur legend if casting Dev Patel (a good actor) is the end game. It is a fictional story.

The same idea applies to Anne Boleyn with Jodie Turner-Smith, tho not fiction. Why not make the entire cast black and/or various races and/or set the film in an imagined world. Not unlike the 1990's version of Richard III, which was set in a fictional version of England in the 1930's.

Let's go back even further. In the 1960's Laurence Oliver really wanted to play Othello, so much much that he did it in blackface, which was really stupid. He could have set it in an African nation where he played a white Othello.

So why weren't those movies made? Hmmmm. I have my own thoughts , but I will save then after others have posted.

[–] DeeRagon (45) 3 years ago

Orson Welles performed Othello on stage without makeup, and all the other actors were black.

[–] kwestmo (4161) 3 years ago

I was unaware of the stage play or the film that followed, but I am not surprised that Welles was so inventive and bold. And way ahead of Sir Laurence.

I see the film took several years to find an American distributor and grossed less than $30,000.

Thanks for the info.

[–] kwestmo (4161) 3 years ago

Further research indicates Wells did wear makeup. Maybe brown face

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arts/shakespeare-othello-from-blackface-to-black-woman-mesa-11252790

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=did+orson+wells+play+othello+in+blackface&qpvt=did+orson+wells+play+othello+in+blackface&form=IGRE&first=1&tsc=ImageBasicHover

[–] DeeRagon (45) 3 years ago

I meant a theater production. An English professor told us that. I can't find reference to it, but I did find this all-black performance he staged. Perhaps that professor had his info confused? It was back in the early 90s.

https://www.inverse.com/article/7139-the-forgotten-story-of-orson-welles-all-black-macbeth-production

[–] kwestmo (4161) 3 years ago

Thanks again. Good info.

A thought occurred to me concerning Shakespeare's original performances of Othello - Othello was most likely played in black face.

[–] DeeRagon (45) 3 years ago

Probably. Women were played by young men in Elizabethan and Jacobean theatres.