Friday, 19 February 2016
GODS OF EGYPT
Gods of Egypt is an upcoming American fantasy film featuring ancient Egyptian deities. The film is directed by Alex Proyas and features an ensemble cast starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Brenton Thwaites, Chadwick Boseman, Elodie Yung, Courtney Eaton, Rufus Sewell, Gerard Butler, and Geoffrey Rush. Butler plays the god of darkness Set who takes over the Egyptian empire, and Thwaites plays the mortal hero Bek who partners with the god Horus, played by Coster-Waldau, to save the world and rescue his love.
Filming took place in Australia under the studio Summit Entertainment. While the film's production budget was $140 million, the parent company Lionsgate's financial exposure was less than $10 million due to tax incentives and pre-sales. When Lionsgate began promoting the film in November 2015, it received backlash for its predominantly white cast playing Egyptian characters. In response, Lionsgate and director Alex Proyas apologized for the lack of casting diversity.
Lionsgate plans to release Gods of Egypt in theaters in the United States on February 26, 2016 and in the United Kingdom on April 8, 2016. The film will be released in 2D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D.
Cast[edit]
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Horus[3]
Brenton Thwaites as Bek[3]
Chadwick Boseman as Thoth[3]
Elodie Yung as Hathor[3]
Courtney Eaton as Zaya[3]
Rufus Sewell as Urshu[3]
Gerard Butler as Set[3]
Geoffrey Rush as Ra[3]
Bryan Brown as Osiris[3]
Production[edit]
...the world of Gods of Egypt never really existed. It is inspired by Egyptian mythology, but it makes no attempt at historical accuracy because that would be pointless — none of the events in the movie ever really happened. It is about as reality-based as Star Wars — which is not real at all ...Maybe one day if I get to make further chapters I will reveal the context of the when and where of the story. But one thing is for sure — it is not set in Ancient Egypt at all.
Director Alex Proyas, December 2015[4]
Gods of Egypt is directed by Alex Proyas based on a screenplay by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless. The film was produced under Summit Entertainment. Proyas contracted with Summit in May 2012 to write the screenplay with Sazama and Sharpless and to direct the film.[5] Proyas said he sought to make a big-budget film with an original premise to contrast franchise films. The director cited the following films as influences on Gods of Egypt: The Guns of Navarone (1961), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and Sergio Leone's Western films.[6] Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was cast in June 2013.[7] Gerard Butler, Geoffrey Rush, and Brenton Thwaites joined the cast toward the end of 2013.[8] Chadwick Boseman and Elodie Yung joined the cast at the start of 2014.[9]
Proyas filmed Gods of Egypt in Australia. A crew of 200 began pre-production in Sydney in New South Wales, and producers considered filming in Melbourne in Victoria to take advantage of the state's tax incentive. Docklands Studios Melbourne was too booked to accommodate Gods of Egypt, and producers were instead offered an airport facility for production.[10] The Australian states New South Wales and Victoria competed to be the location of the film's production, and Summit selected NSW in February 2014. The state's deputy premier Andrew Stoner estimated that the production would add 400 jobs to the state and contribute $75 million to its economy.[11][nb 2]
Filming began on March 19, 2014 at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney.[12] The setting of Osiris's temple was filmed at Centennial Park in Sydney, and visual effects were laid over the scene.[13] The production budget was $140 million. Jon Feltheimer, the CEO of Summit's parent company Lionsgate, said Lionsgate's financial exposure was under $10 million due to tax incentives of filming in Australia as well as foreign pre-sales.[14][15]
In the film, the gods in humanoid form are 9 feet (2.7 m) tall and in "battle beast" form are over 12 feet (3.7 m) tall. Proyas used forced perspective and motion control photography to portray the difference in height between the actors portraying the gods and the humans. Proyas called the logistical challenge a "reverse Hobbit", referring to The Lord of the Rings films in which Hobbits are depicted as shorter than humans.[4] For the Sphinx, actor Kenneth Ransom portrayed the giant creature via motion capture. For the god Thoth, who can appear as many copies, actor Chadwick Boseman was filmed hundreds of times from different angles. For a scene with many copies of Thoth, other actors took a day to film the scene, where Boseman filmed the scene for three days.[13]
Composer Marco Beltrami, who scored Proyas's previous films Knowing (2009) and I, Robot (2004), returned to score Gods of Egypt.[4]
Racial and ethnic casting[edit]
For more details on this topic, see List of films featuring whitewashed roles.
White actors make up most of the principal cast of Gods of Egypt. When Lionsgate began marketing the film, the Associated Press said the distributor received backlash for "ethnically inaccurate casting". Lionsgate and director Alex Proyas both issued apologies. The AP said, "While some praised the preemptive mea culpa... others were more skeptical, concluding that it's simply meant to shut down any further backlash."[16]
The casting practice of white actors as Egyptian characters was first reported after filming started in March 2014, when Daily Life's Ruby Hamad highlighted the practice as "Hollywood whitewashing".[17] Lionsgate released a set of character posters in November 2015, and The Guardian reported that the casting received a backlash on Twitter over the predominantly white cast. Some suggested that the casting of black actor Chadwick Boseman, who plays the god Thoth, played into the Magical Negro stereotype. The previous year, the biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings by director Ridley Scott received similar backlash for having a white cast.[18][nb 3] The Washington Post's Soraya Nadia McDonald also disparaged the casting practice for Gods of Egypt and said Lionsgate released the posters at an unfortunate time. She said with the release of Aziz Ansari's TV series Master of None in the previous week, "Whitewashed casting and the offensiveness of brownface has pretty much dominated the pop culture conversation this week. Promotion for the movie is beginning just as we're wrapping a banner year for discussions of diversity and gender pay equity in the film industry.
When Lionsgate followed its unharness of posters with a unharness of a theatrical trailer, Scott Mendelson at Forbes aforementioned virtually none of the actors, apart from probably manservant, qualified as box workplace attracts.[20] BET's Evelyn navigator aforementioned whereas marine turtle Scott had defended his forgeding apply for Exodus by claiming the necessity to cast box workplace attracts, "Gods of Egypt is headlined by character actors and Gerard manservant, none of whom can have folks running to the podium on gap day."[21] Deadline's Ross A. Lincoln aforementioned of the discharged trailer, "Casting here stands out sort of a sore thumb leftover from Fifties Hollywood. i believe this film generates plenty of speech before it hits theaters Feb twenty six, 2016."[22]
In response to criticisms of its casting apply, director Alex Proyas and Lionsgate issued apologies in late Nov 2015 for not considering diversity; Lionsgate aforementioned it might attempt to try to to higher. Mendelson of Forbes aforementioned the apologies were "a somewhat totally different response" than defenses created by marine turtle Scott for Exodus and Joe Wright for Pan (2015).[23] Ava DuVernay, United Nations agency directed town (2014), said, "This quite apology ne'er happens - for one thing that happens all the time. associate degree uncommon incidence price noting."[24] The Guardian's mountain kid aforementioned, "The apologies area unit outstanding, particularly providing Gods of Egypt doesn't debut in cinemas till twenty six Feb and will currently suffer at the box workplace."[25] Michael Ordoña of port of entry Chronicle aforementioned of the apologies, "That's very little comfort to the nonwhite actors denied opportunities or the Egyptians United Nations agency can see a pale shadow of their ancestral traditions."[26] The Casting Society of America applauded the statements from Lionsgate and Proyas. faculty member Todd Boyd, chair for the Study of Race and in style Culture at the University of Southern Calif., said, "The apology is a shot to own it each ways that. they need the forged that they chose and that they don't desire folks to carry it against them that it is a white forged."[16]
Boseman, United Nations agency plays the god Egyptian deity, commented on the whitewashing, aforementioned he expected the backlash to happen once he saw the script. He said, "I'm glad that it did, as a result of truly, I accept as true with it. that is why I wished to try to to it, therefore you'd see somebody of African descent enjoying Egyptian deity, the daddy of arithmetic, astronomy, the god of knowledge."[27]
In the month leading up to the discharge, director Proyas aforementioned his film was fantasy and not meant to be history. He cited "creative license and inventive freedom of expression" to forged the actors he found to suit the roles. He aforementioned "white-washing" was a even concern except for his fantasy film, "To exclude anybody race in commission of a theoretical theory of historical accuracy... would are biased." Proyas aforementioned that films "need additional folks of color and a bigger cultural diversity" however that Gods of Egypt "is not the most effective one to soap-box problems with diversity with". He argued that the shortage of communicative Egyptian actors, production practicalities, the studio's demand for box workplace attracts, and Australia having tips limiting "imported" actors were all factors in casting for the film. He complete, "I tried to indicate racial diversity, black, white, Asian, as so much as i used to be allowed, as so much as I may, given the constraints i used to be given. it's clearly clear that for things to vary, for casting in movies to become additional numerous several forces should align. Not simply the inventive. To those that area unit displeased by the selections that were created I even have already apologised. I respect their opinion, however I hope the context of the selections could be a very little clearer supported my statements here
In response to criticisms of its casting apply, director Alex Proyas and Lionsgate issued apologies in late Nov 2015 for not considering diversity; Lionsgate aforementioned it might attempt to try to to higher. Mendelson of Forbes aforementioned the apologies were "a somewhat totally different response" than defenses created by marine turtle Scott for Exodus and Joe Wright for Pan (2015).[23] Ava DuVernay, United Nations agency directed town (2014), said, "This quite apology ne'er happens - for one thing that happens all the time. associate degree uncommon incidence price noting."[24] The Guardian's mountain kid aforementioned, "The apologies area unit outstanding, particularly providing Gods of Egypt doesn't debut in cinemas till twenty six Feb and will currently suffer at the box workplace."[25] Michael Ordoña of port of entry Chronicle aforementioned of the apologies, "That's very little comfort to the nonwhite actors denied opportunities or the Egyptians United Nations agency can see a pale shadow of their ancestral traditions."[26] The Casting Society of America applauded the statements from Lionsgate and Proyas. faculty member Todd Boyd, chair for the Study of Race and in style Culture at the University of Southern Calif., said, "The apology is a shot to own it each ways that. they need the forged that they chose and that they don't desire folks to carry it against them that it is a white forged."[16]
Boseman, United Nations agency plays the god Egyptian deity, commented on the whitewashing, aforementioned he expected the backlash to happen once he saw the script. He said, "I'm glad that it did, as a result of truly, I accept as true with it. that is why I wished to try to to it, therefore you'd see somebody of African descent enjoying Egyptian deity, the daddy of arithmetic, astronomy, the god of knowledge."[27]
In the month leading up to the discharge, director Proyas aforementioned his film was fantasy and not meant to be history. He cited "creative license and inventive freedom of expression" to forged the actors he found to suit the roles. He aforementioned "white-washing" was a even concern except for his fantasy film, "To exclude anybody race in commission of a theoretical theory of historical accuracy... would are biased." Proyas aforementioned that films "need additional folks of color and a bigger cultural diversity" however that Gods of Egypt "is not the most effective one to soap-box problems with diversity with". He argued that the shortage of communicative Egyptian actors, production practicalities, the studio's demand for box workplace attracts, and Australia having tips limiting "imported" actors were all factors in casting for the film. He complete, "I tried to indicate racial diversity, black, white, Asian, as so much as i used to be allowed, as so much as I may, given the constraints i used to be given. it's clearly clear that for things to vary, for casting in movies to become additional numerous several forces should align. Not simply the inventive. To those that area unit displeased by the selections that were created I even have already apologised. I respect their opinion, however I hope the context of the selections could be a very little clearer supported my statements here
