I can’t help but think this is relevant to this necro-thread which I’m not going to revive.
Anybody who saw The Player wouldn’t be surprised by this. 
hey, in a world where people of color can play the founding fathers, is this even a bad thing?
(Ok it is.)
Still a better casting choice than The Watch.
25 years ago. I’m sure the viral outrage works to raise awareness of the movie, and it might seem wrong to consider this “outdated news”, when the topic is a movie about someone who’s been gone a whole lot longer, but I do feel like I’ve been trolled.
While I can’t rule out that some studio executive was this dumb, it seems more likely to me that he was making a joke.
The Sky News link put a damn pop-up on my phone that I couldn’t get rid of. Here’s the story from CNN:
I wouldn’t rule out that a good portion of the country is that dumb.
Too bad the movie wasn’t made 25 years ago–the trains would have likely been practical then. Now, they will probably be half-assed CG.
You mean the trains on the Underground Railroad?
Don’t forget Washington National Airport. There aren’t any flying examples of 1860 airliners, so they’ll have to be cg.
There’s something worth noting. The CNN story reports that Howard says he was told about this story. He didn’t say he was there in the room when the executive said it.
It doesn’t matter; you can’t really see the trains because they’re underground.
It’s gotta be a joke.
Or, to take it in a negative light, the producer was basically saying that the only way the movie would be successful would be if a white woman was in the lead.
The only way I can imagine Julia Roberts in the lead of a Harriet Tubman biopic is if the focus is shifted to another character, such as a (perhap fictional) white woman working on the Underground Railroad.
Actually scratch that. Instead of a Harriet Tubman biopic, imagine a film more broadly about the Underground Railroad.
Harriet has made less than 34 million dollars at the box office, a big studio production with a star as big as Julia Roberts 25 years ago in a renamed role would likely have made more money. This is just another silly thing for people who like to get outraged to get outraged about.
The Washington Nationals have their own airport? I guess that’s what comes of winning the World Series.
I can 100% believe a single producer being this dumb. The only requirement for being a producer in Hollywood is, “has a lot of money,” and there’s a lot of really stupid rich people out there. But there’s also a massive gulf between, “One dipshit thought this was a good idea,” and “This idea had even the remotest chance of actually getting put into a movie.”
Obviously it wasn’t called Reagan National in 1860. Ronnie wouldn’t be born for another 50 years. Get your historical facts right!
And besides, the DC baseball team in 1860 was the Senators.
I know you’re being facetious, as am I, but Washington didn’t have a professional baseball team until 1871 and had a team named the Nationals in 1872.