Rooney Mara will star in Brady Corbet’s pop star drama, “Vox Lux,” TheWrap has learned.
The film will serve as a follow-up to Corbet’s critically-acclaimed film “The Childhood of a Leader,” which won the “Luigi de Laurentiis” Award at the Venice Film Festival last year.
The soundtrack to the film, which will be shot in 65mm large format and exhibit on 70mm, will feature all original songs written by Sia. Kodak will back the film with equity and marketing.
“Brady is a young auteur almost without parallel,” said Steve Bellamy, president of Kodak Motion Picture. “After such an amazing growth year for film in 2015 much like vinyl in the music industry, we are doing everything we can to help find and nurture those next master craftsmen like Brady. They will shortly become the future PT Andersons, Christopher Nolans, Quentin Tarantinos, JJ Abrams, Steven Spielbergs, etc.”
The project is eyeing a February start in New York. It is described as “a 21st century story of Celeste, a pop star who comes to success as a result of unusual circumstances.”
More caricature than character, Rooney starred as the buck-toothed, Japanese Mr. Yunioshi in the 1961 film, which has faced volumes of criticism since.
The "Jailhouse Rock" singer played a Native American rodeo rider in the 1968 comedy Western. Along with this miscasting, many also criticized the film's use of stereotypes and offensive humor.
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Peter Sellers in "The Party" (1968)
The English actor wore brown face for his role as Hrundi V. Bakshi, an Indian actor, in the comedy film. "The Party" was also called out for its racist humor and perpetuating South Asian stereotypes.
Schneider seems to play a different ethnicity in every Adam Sandler movie. In "The Waterboy" he was the "You can do it!" guy, in "Big Daddy," he was a Middle-Eastern deliveryman, and in "50 First Dates," he plays a native Hawaiian. Badly.
In the 2007 drama film, Jolie plays Mariane Pearl, a real-life journalist of Afro-Chinese-Cuban descent, though the actress herself is of mixed-European descent.
The movie follows a group of math students who come up with a card-counting strategy to win big in Vegas. While the movie had a predominantly white cast, the real-life MIT students were Asian American.
Sony
Jake Gyllenhaal in "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" (2010) Gyllenhaal plays a Middle Eastern prince in the film, which many called "insulting" and "the perfect example of whitewashing."
Johnny Depp played a Native American in Disney's film, which sparked outrage among fans and critics despite the actor's claims that his great-grandmother had mostly Cherokee blood.
Scarlett Johansson, who consistently takes on roles for nonwhite actors, plays the Japanese lead in this lackluster film. Nevertheless, this miscasting sparked a larger conversation on Hollywood's whitewashing of Asian roles.
Paramount Pictures
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Rooney as Japanese? Stone as Chinese/Swedish/Hawaiian? TheWrap looks at history of racially misguided castings
Hollywood just doesn't seem to learn from its mistakes as it continues to cast white actors in nonwhite roles again and again. And again.