Matt Damon attends AOL Build Presents Matt Damon Discussing His New Film 'Jason Bourne' at AOL HQ on July 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo : Getty Images / Nicholas Hunt )
The Asian-American community backlashed "The Great Wall" for Hollywood whitewashing following its first trailer that came out on July 28, Thursday. The English-language movie is directed by Zhang Yimou and has a story happening over a thousand years ago where actor Matt Damon portrays a soldier in ancient China, the white savior of the Great Wall. The film is set to release in Feb. 2017.
Critics are seeing "The Great Wall" as the most recent example of Hollywood whitewashing where a white actor plays a role that should go to a person of color. American-Taiwanese actress Constance Wu tweeted about the "racist myth that [only a] white man can save the world." Hollywood somehow finds a white guy to be the hero in a story set in any era and in any place of the world, according to Angry Asian Man blog.
Mostly a Chinese production, Damon's new movie is being distributed worldwide and co-produced by American firms Universal Pictures and Legendary Pictures, respectively. A story about the Great Wall by Franz Kafka is where the movie is based on.
Yimou's upcoming film is not the first Chinese co-production with a white leading man. "Dragon Blade" had Adrien Brody, John Cusack and Jackie Chan while "Furious 7" featured Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Gal Gadot, Paul Walker and Michelle Rodriguez. The latter ranked the third highest grossing film in China and the sixth worldwide.
The global trend is that China is becoming an expansive movie marketplace and is recently Hollywood's most fervent investor. With the usual collaboration between the two, global movie followers now wonder if it could be that the next Jason Bourne or Iron Man or Spider-Man be Chinese, black, Latino or Asian, according to FilmSchoolRejects.
One cannot imagine a "Bourne" movie without Damon though it already happened with "The Bourne Legacy" which fared better overseas, raking in $163 million internationally while it got $113 million locally. Now, "Jason Bourne" had an international opening weekend of $50 million, hence, it can break the record of the previous film. Yet, a "Bourne" movie without Damon already succeeded in foreign markets so Bourne can be played by anyone and that may excite the global audience.
"The Great Wall" also stars Chinese actor Andy Lau who could be a good contender for "Bourne" if the movie becomes a hit. Other candidates could be Donnie Yen and Idris Elba. Along with more versatile casting could come remaking the models of movies to suit international audiences.
Here is the newly-released trailer of Damon's upcoming Chinese film.
