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Paramount Says ‘Ghost In The Shell’ Flopped Because Of Whitewashing Controversy

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LOL

Who are you trying to impress with your lies? Not one of them said "it's just the way Hollywood is" or anything even close to it.

You are absolutely pathetic.

This is your response to all the people that quoted your idiotic post? LOL

I think you need your eyes checked. Watch your video again

4:23, watch...but then again I am probably wasting my time on a troll.
 

Duplolas

Banned
What the fuck does the opinion of a person living in Japan have to do with a racial problem that's happening in the US ? Are you trolling or just a little clouded ?

So what you're saying is the opinions of the people who are apparently under racist attack don't matter.

Sound logic.
 

Jotaka

Member
LOL

Who are you trying to impress with your lies? Not one of them said "it's just the way Hollywood is" or anything even close to it.

You are absolutely pathetic.

Of course the average japanese don't give a shit because its just an anime. It may surprise you but most people don't watch anime tv in Japan. It is an otaku stuff, a sub-culture thing, not well regarded hobby.
 

3N16MA

Banned
It's one of the reasons but It may not even be the main one. The trailers seemed to do nothing in terms of building hype, the marketing was meh, reviews were mediocre, audiences simply seemed uninterested in the film overall.

However I'm sure Scarlett Johansson will be fine after this and will continue to land plenty of big roles.

Could you imagine if an Asian actresses starred in this film with these results? It would probably be her first and last chance.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
lol at him saying fanboys hahahaha
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
So what you're saying is the opinions of the people who are apparently under racist attack don't matter.

Sound logic.
The people under attack are Asian Americans, not native Asians.

I know this is a very hard concept to grasp; it's like how persecution of black americans don't actually affect Malians, and vice versa.
 

Duplolas

Banned
This is your response to all the people that quoted your idiotic post? LOL

I think you need your eyes checked. Watch your video again

4:23, watch...but then again I am probably wasting my time on a troll.

"She was chosen for her skills, that's just the way it is."

"She looks like the character so it's not a bad choice."

"Beautiful"

"I don't think the actress needs to be Japanese"

Yup. Im completely wrong.

Nice job cherry picking one singular quote to try to prove your point.
 

le.phat

Member
So what you're saying is the opinions of the people who are apparently under racist attack don't matter.

Sound logic.

This is a racial issue that exists on the fringe of asian culture in a western society. You realise that only thing japanese about this issue is the source material of this movie, right ? That the issue of whitewashing hurts american asians first and foremost, right ?
 
So what you're saying is the opinions of the people who are apparently under racist attack don't matter.

Sound logic.

Please tell me you're trolling. If not, what you're missing is context. Specifically in this case the difference between Native Japanese (or native Asians in general) and Asian-Americans.
 
The trailer made it look like another near future tween makout excuse swimming in Hunger Games' wake. Having ScarJo doesn't help that perception. In addition, fans of GOTS weren't happy, spreading word to non-fans to avoid the movie. Plus the reviews weren't good.

Also whitewashing.
 

jmdajr

Member
How many of the reviews even focused on the casting?

I think Elaine gif pretty much sums it up overall. Seems like a weak choice of a movie to crucify for a larger issue.
 

KSweeley

Member
Variety reports that Ghost in the Shell was "cited as exhibit A in a larger, industry-wide debate about studios’ habits of employing white actors in Asian roles." and the controversy over whitewashing was described by Paramount's marketing and distribution head as being " a small, but vocal group.": https://variety.com/2017/film/box-o...in-the-shell-beauty-and-the-beast-1202020980/

“Ghost in the Shell’s” rollout was nearly subsumed by controversy over its casting and accusations that by tapping Johansson the film had engaged in “whitewashing.” It was cited as exhibit A in a larger, industry-wide debate about studios’ habits of employing white actors in Asian roles. The furor surrounding the casting found its way into many of the negative notices that the picture received, and was the subject of several critical thinkpieces.

“It was a small, but vocal group,” said Megan Colligan, Paramount’s marketing and distribution head. “It had some impact, but it was more of the impact overall on reviews. I think people are becoming more vocal on these types of issues. I haven’t worked on many large-scale action movies that have a female lead, so I wish it had been embraced more.”
 

LionPride

Banned
The trailer made it look like another near future tween makout excuse swimming in Hunger Games' wake. Having ScarJo doesn't help that perception. In addition, fans of GOTS weren't happy, spreading word to non-fans to avoid the movie. Plus the reviews weren't good.

Also whitewashing.
So like the first sentence is false but otherwise ya on a track.

Variety reports that Ghost in the Shell was "cited as exhibit A in a larger, industry-wide debate about studios’ habits of employing white actors in Asian roles." and the controversy over whitewashing was described by Paramount's marketing and distribution head as being " a small, but vocal group.": https://variety.com/2017/film/box-o...in-the-shell-beauty-and-the-beast-1202020980/
Yeah, it's small but vocal about this shit.
 

Zoe

Member
Variety reports that Ghost in the Shell was "cited as exhibit A in a larger, industry-wide debate about studios’ habits of employing white actors in Asian roles." and the controversy over whitewashing was described by Paramount's marketing and distribution head as being " a small, but vocal group.": https://variety.com/2017/film/box-o...in-the-shell-beauty-and-the-beast-1202020980/

“It was a small, but vocal group,” said Megan Colligan, Paramount’s marketing and distribution head. “It had some impact, but it was more of the impact overall on reviews. I think people are becoming more vocal on these types of issues. I haven’t worked on many large-scale action movies that have a female lead, so I wish it had been embraced more.

Do we have a space on the bingo card for "it's not about race, it's about feminism"?
 
The people under attack are Asian Americans, not native Asians.

I know this is a very hard concept to grasp; it's like how persecution of black americans don't actually affect Malians, and vice versa.

Yeah seriously I don't get what is so hard to understand. Native Asians live where the vast majority of media surrounding them features Asians. Of course they wouldn't have the same concerns.

Everytime I see that video posted or some defense that Asians don't care I immediately know the person espousing it is the most insulated Westerner possible.
 

Kimawolf

Member
Studios will take from this not whitewash but that women can't carry large budget action movies.

Let WW underperform and watch that well dry up.
 
"must be fanboy's fault that our 'mainstream' movie got panned by mainstream viewers." Sounded logic there mister.

Seriously, with this kind of mindset they will never make a good anime adapted movie.
 

vinnygambini

Why are strippers at the U.N. bad when they're great at strip clubs???
If you want to go older, look no further than the likes of David Fincher and Michael Bay themselves, both of whom came from the same ad company. No feature films to their credit before landing their big time studio gigs, and while Fincher had more of a trial by fire than Bay did, they've become mainstays of the industry since then.

Yup.

I don't understand the concept of a "newbie" whatsoever. They've worked in the industry, they've worked with budgets, a set of deadlines, etc.

The visuals in the film alone shows that Rupert is no newbie when it comes to visual entertainment - where the film lacks is in it's script and lack of purpose to an extent.

The film was a labor of love for many that worked on the production (watch a few clips from weta and the making of, it's amazing).
 

Tylercrat

Banned
He only did one feature film prior to GiTS, effectively making him a newbie at directing feature films. Before Snow White and the Huntsman, he couldn't even be classified as a newbie in that department. Until he has a at least a couple of films under his belt, he will be regarded as a newcomer.

No studio in their right mind should give newbies a chance to direct blockbusters. You don't let a pilot that has never flown a plane before start flying jumbo jets frequently. They need to build up their skills, and they do that by acquiring experience. That goes for any profession or goal for that matter. Start small, aim big.

So like only Steven Spielberg should be allowed to make blockbusters?
 

L Thammy

Member
Makes me think of

not_for_critics_200405ts40.jpg
 
having done everything right this still would have sold like shit

at least it has the best cyber punk aesthetic i've ever seen

Yeah. There are a lot of anime fans but not enough to cover a movie on this scale (and scifi cyberpunk is niche too) and then some anime fans don't even care about live action being animation fans too.

Agreed, it was cool to see, and while flawed I still enjoyed it and more than I expected. Looked great in IMAX. Though I went in already a big fan of the original, and especially SAC.
 

Jeffrey

Member
Scarlett was the best part of the film. She put effort to mimick the majors expression and body language really well. It's the script and everything else the destroyed the film.

But even if the film was amazing, it would never had destroyed the box office, especially with its competition.
 

Oersted

Member
The selling points of the movie,based on the marketing, were Johansson and visuals. Thats almost never enough. You need a compelling hook. There wasn't any.
 

PR_rambo

Banned
The source material is niche, and the movie itself is a bad one. Most of the time, Bad movies bomb, whitewashing barely had anything to do with it.

I would not mind if they come out of this thinking they shouldn't do so in the future though.
 

LOLDSFAN

Member
“So you’re always trying to thread that needle between honoring the source material and make a movie for a mass audience."

You can honor it by making it not live action.
 
I'm a Ghost in the Shell fanboy and I was excited to see Scarlet in the movie. Then I saw the trailer and was like..... ehh rental.
 

Pachinko

Member
Translating this nonsense into English from PR ass speak - " the fan base that could have helped promote this film because of their love for the source work disliked our casting decisions but as they don't make up a large audience we decided this film needed a big name Hollywood actress to give it a chance to sell beyond the niche audience even we admit would normally pass on such an odd sci-fi property , 2 years of bad publicity combined with our inane twist ending killed word of mouth on a movie we shouldn't have actually bothered to spend 110 million on"

The key here is that GITS is a hard sell and it's easy to blame hardcore fans for tarninshing the marketing rather then a sloppy script or a mediocre director or heavy competition at the box office. There are no winners in the blame game.
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Woah, that kid posted *so* many more times while I was typing his kinky permaban message about whitewashing and ballwashing.
 

Fury451

Banned
Doubt it. It's probably a factor, but not the biggest factor.

Anime is niche, even the most popular of it. Lots of people I know who are not avid anime fans have seen GitS and Akira, but probably wouldn't care about seeing an arbitrary live action version so it lacks broad appeal.

I absolutely love the Akira film and especially manga, and wouldn't see a live adaptation until it hit streaming.

Still, anything that slaps Hollywood's hand about whitewashing and encourages a change is a good thing.
 

jmdajr

Member
You know this might still be the highest grossing anime adaption of all time!

Speed racer didn't even make 100 million. Wow. Dragonball Evolution made barely 50 million. Anybody know something I might have forgotten?

Does SreetFighter count? Power Rangers? Final Fantasty?

Box Office Mojo doesn't even have a category for anime adaptation.

Looks like Godzilla and Horror movies are about the best adaptions from Japanese franchises.
edit: Fuck forgot about Resident Evil. That did well.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
I think very few reviews even brought this issue up, and certainly didn't seem to affect critics opinion significantly.

I think morbidly, in the end, it was for the best this movie didn't have Asian lead. It would have flopped just the same, and the execs would then blamed the casting rather than the movie's quality. But of course, instead of getting some kind of positive teaching moment out of this - that a popular white actor won't save a bad movie, so casting an Asian lead in a good movie wouldn't hurt it - he goes on and complains about the controversy.
 

RalchAC

Member
Doubt it. It's probably a factor, but not the biggest factor.

Anime is niche, even the most popular of it. Lots of people I know who are not avid anime fans have seen GitS and Akira, but probably wouldn't care about seeing an arbitrary live action version so it lacks broad appeal.

I absolutely love the Akira film and especially manga, and wouldn't see a live adaptation until it hit streaming.

Still, anything that slaps Hollywood's hand about whitewashing and encourages a change is a good thing.

Well, eventhough I don't think it was the main factor, I'd agree that it's an important one.

I honestly would have gone if I had managed a cheap enough ticket but, after seeing that video about the Asian girl looking for a comic that she'd like, I was like nope.
 
White washing is probably a minor contributor to the under performance at the box office.

Most people probably just realise that Scarjo films typically aren't that great and decided to stay away.
 
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