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The Girl with All the Gifts is a New Twist on Zombie Horror Fiction

The trailer for The Girl with All the Gifts has arrived. Set in a dystopian future, most of humanity has been infected by a fungus that causes its victims to quickly lose their mental powers and feed on the flesh of healthy humans. These flesh-eating creatures are called “hungries”. 

Tony Awards Make History: People of Color Swept All Four Musical Acting Categories 

The Tony Awards made history Sunday night by bestowing all four of its musical acting honors to performers of color.

Three Hamilton cast members and one star of The Color Purple made their mark on the 70th annual awards show and etched their names in Broadway's history books.

#RumiWasntWhite asks filmmakers not to cast Leonardo DiCaprio as Sufi poet

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, often known simply as Rumi, was a 13th-century Persian poet and scholar. He was born in the Kwaraziman dynasty, which encompassed parts of what is now Iran and Afghanistan. He was most certainly brown. Which, of course, means Hollywood wants to cast Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie based on his life. Ramadan Mubarak, I guess.

According to the dailydot.com, screenwriter David Franzoni, most famous for Gladiator, told the Guardian he wanted DiCaprio to play Rumi, and Robert Downey Jr. to star as the mystic Shams of Tabriz—aka two white people playing two nonwhite people. If you couldn’t guess, many are unhappy about those choices and are posting about it under the hashtag #RumiWasntWhite.

Eli Goree is Going Places

Meet Eli Goree, the Canadian actor popularly known for his roles in the post-apocalyptic drama “The 100” and “Da Kink in My Hair”. Although his work has been receiving more recognition in the past recent years, Goree actually started working in the industry at the age of 6, where he landed a role on “Sesame Park”, the Canadian edition of “Sesame Street”.  Over the years, this Gemini and Young Artist Award nominee has continued to bag roles in several prominent Canadian and American movie and television productions.

You can catch him on the widely popular series “Supernatural”, the two-part television miniseries, “Eve of Destruction” and the upcoming 1980’s era horror drama series “Dead of Summer” set to be releases in June 2016 on Freeform; where he will play a lead role. This isn't the first time Goree is taking on the pressure of being the leading actor. In 2009, he was cast as the lead for the Toronto based play, “Secrets of a Black Boy” which tackle issues such as the displacement of families, infidelity, the black queer community and police harassment.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, New Talent and Selective Hero Archetypes

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk is a film centred on a young soldier and his squad’s return to the United States for a hero's welcome.  Two-time Academy Award® winning Director Ang Lee brings this emotionally charged adaptation of the critically acclaimed best-selling novel by author Ben Fountain.  Newcomer Joe Alwyn was awarded the lead role in the new war drama.  He portrays a young soldier who is honoured during the Cowboys’ Thanksgiving Day football half-time show in 2004.   The young veteran recalls the horrors of war, along with his role in a fire-fight that became a media sensation.  The film’s cast also includes Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Vin Diesel, Steve Martin, and Chris Tucker.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk presents another opportunity for a newcomer to lead a major film with a veteran cast and an award-winning director at the helm.  However, this is reminiscent of a Variety.com statement made by Director Ridley Scott regarding his widely criticized film, Exodus: Gods and Kings. Scott stated that he could not “mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such,” 

Scott stated what he believed is the way the industry worked— that financiers will only back movies with white, well-known actors.   Yet, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, with an newcomer as the lead actor, was given financing and industry support.  Does this validate the idea that movies led by white actors are the only movies that warrant adequate funding?  Does this further imply that up and coming white actors have an advantage over non-white newcomers?

Over the years there have been a lot of movies that glorified the horrors and atrocities of war.  The lead actors were typically straight white men who embodied the hero archetype.  There is no shortage of stories that could be told from another perspective.  However, these narratives don’t receive adequate support or/ funding to get them off the ground.

The story of decorated Army Commander, Colonel. Gregory D. Gadson is a prime example. His story is one that was made for the movies.  Col. Gadson was stationed in Iraq in 2007.  While he was there, a roadside bomb hit his car. 

He lost both his legs and his right arm and hand were severely damaged in the accident.  Despite his long road to recovery, this former West Point football player was able to achieve impressive success.  Gadson became the first double amputee in US Army's history to achieve reins as Garrison Commander of a major installation as well as oversee more than 50,000 military employees and over 140 tenant agencies for the Department of Defense.  He also made his acting debut in the 2012 American science fiction naval war film Battleship. Gadson was cast as a supporting actor after director Peter Berg had seen news articles about him.

In spite of his physical adversity, Gadson has remained on active duty.  He has become a motivational speaker and is even credited with motivating the New York Giants to win the 2007 Superbowl.  Gregory D. Gadson's life on film should be in the works, but it isn't.

Asian-American Actors Can No Longer Be Ignored. 

According to a recent New York Times article, more Asian-American actors and activists have spoken out with raw, unapologetic anger. 

When Constance Wu landed the part of Jessica Huang, the Chinese-American matriarch on the ABC sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat,” she didn’t realize just how significant the role would turn out to be. As she developed her part, Ms. Wu heard the same dismal fact repeated over and over again: It had been 20 years since a show featuring a predominantly Asian-American cast had aired on television. ABC’s previous offering, the 1994 Margaret Cho vehicle “All-American Girl,” was canceled after one season.

“I wasn’t really conscious of it until I booked the role,” Ms. Wu said. “I was focused on the task at hand, which was paying my rent.”

The show, which was just renewed for a third season, has granted Ms. Wu a steady job and a new perspective. “It changed me,” Ms. Wu said. After doing a lot of research, she shifted her focus “from self-interest to Asian-American interests.”

Other actors lending their voices include Kumail Nanjiani of “Silicon Valley,” Ming-Na Wen of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and Aziz Ansari, who in his show, “Master of None,” plays an Indian-American actor trying to make his mark.

They join longtime actors and activists like BD Wong of “Gotham”; Margaret Cho, who has taken her tart comedic commentary to Twitter; andGeorge Takei, who has leveraged his “Star Trek” fame into a social media juggernaut.

“There’s an age-old stereotypical notion that Asian-American people don’t speak up,” Mr. Wong said. But “we’re really getting into people’s faces about it.”