Movie industry bombarding us with historic epics

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Albert Speer
Vin Diesal is black?!

Half and half, IIRC.

[DanS]

i doubt any percentage of their army was dark-skinned african.

Actually, I think that many of his mercenaries were indeed dark-skinned african, or at least half-and-half.

Where did the numidians live at this time? I could never figure that out.

[Al B. Sure!]

i never thought of him as anything but white but i guess i could see him being mixed... kind of? i dont know... maybe his black parent was light-skinned

but anyway, he looks like a fairly swarthy caucasion, so the Hannibal role is good for him in that regard though i don't think he'd be that good of an actor for that movie...

at least they didn't do an Othello though...

[Al B. Sure!]

DanS:

Numidia was roughly Algeria...

[Al B. Sure!]

the thing is that it would have been difficult for Carthage to recruit negroes... if you look on a historical map, carthage's african empire only existed along the coasts of the maghreb... there was a little trade past gibralter with north-west africa but there was no real contact with sub-saharan africa. the sahara was extremely hazardous to the maritime carthaginians, especially as it was filled with some hostile berbers. hell, if it wasn't for upper egypt and nubia, i'd be doubting the carthaginians even knew black people existed.

[DanS]

there was a little trade past gibralter with north-west africa but there was no real contact with sub-saharan africa. the sahara was extremely hazardous to the maritime carthaginians, especially as it was filled with some hostile berbers. hell, if it wasn't for upper egypt and nubia, i'd be doubting the carthaginians even knew black people existed.

Actually, I think Livy mentioned the black Africans specifically, but not often enough to slake our curiosity nowadays (maybe we're all just racist).

As for contact with sub-saharan Africa, I think it was limited, but more than you make it out to be.

Thanks for the Numidian info.

[Ned]

AFAIK, there were no Arabs in Carthage or in the surrounding area. They moved in during the late 700's.

Also, considering that Hannibal came from Spain, I suspect his army also had a large Spanish contingent.

[Az]

Hanibaal was 'arab' in that sense that he was from the middle east. Let us not forget that Carthage was a phoenician city state, despite being in Africa, much like the greek city states around the Med and in the black sea. He was probably dark skinned due to the weather, but had mediterrenean facial features.

Oh, and I wonder how similar was phoenician to hebrew. It should've been pretty close.

[Japher]

The Movie: "Microsoft: The Bill Gates Story"
Starring: Vin Disel (Bill)
Release: 2006

Watch as Bill takes on the corporate rule and becomes Supreme Overlord of the world!!!



Now that would be a classic...

[GePap]

Gibson's movie is unlikely to get a wide release, speically since it is subtitled, as it is in Aramaic and Latin. That and the allegations of anti-semitism.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Hannibal was pretty pale whitey, like Caesar, and the higher up Romans. He didn't slave in the fields or anything, he was high aristocracy, being spared the sun, most likely. Of course, he did have a bushy beard . But I still think that Vin Deisel is a bit too dark to portray Hannibal as he actually was, so it seems like a PC move to me.

[Az]

Yeah, I forgot he was nobility. Anyway, I still think that in terms of skin colour, Vin Deisel is the right choice. In terms of acting, well.... n/m.

[GePap]

No, casting Vin Diesel is about getting teenagers into the theaters. This is a commercial production, no? They want to make money, and Diesel attracts a teengae audience (including the girls), while not being too expensive.

BUt leave it to a rep. to view the evil specter of "PC" everywhere.. (It is a sound capitalist decision Imran..you should be all for it)

[Az]

No, but casting Arnie or Chew Yun Fat would be rediculous, no?

[GePap]

Originally posted by Azazel
No, but casting Arnie or Chew Yun Fat would be rediculous, no?

Yeah, cuase they can't draw a teengae audience

Now, Samuel N. Jackson....

[Imran Siddiqui]

A sound capitalist decision would be to cast Leo for that movie as well .

And after 'Fast and the Furious', Vin Diesel ain't cheap in the slightest.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah, cuase they can't draw a teengae audience

Arnie can't draw a teen audience? Where do you think Terminator 3 got most of its money?

[GePap]

Vin Isn't that expensive. Leo costs more, speically having gotten an Oscar nod. If you notice, he is also taken right now.

T3 is part of a large franchise, of which arnold happens to be a big part, but he is not the main draw by himself. Just look at "Coolateral Damage". I am not sure Arnold could make a brand new movie that was not a sequel and expect people to come just on his name on the Marquis.

[Az]

Samuel Jackson wouldn't fit as Hanibaal as well. Too black.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Leo also brings in much more. I'm not sure how much Vin will bring in. Think about it, his big stuff was not teenage girl flocking movies, but rather stuff that teenage boys went to. Movies with lots of explosions and the such. Will he be able to 'Gladiator' this movie? I'd rather hire another heartrob that may be able to handle it... or just focus on the killing and gore and hope that'll bring in the 20-somethings .

And if you give Arnold a really big, nicely hyped movie, he'll make big money. He just hasn't been doing too much of that yet. An Attila the Hun epic might be up his alley though .

[Az]

he'll have to use lots of makeup, though.

/me keeps playing the ethnical point.

[GePap]

Nah, Wayne did Attila. It was not pretty.

My guess is that the porducers of Hannibal wanted someone who looked, well, like a soldier, and DiCaprio does not have that. In terms of violence, I am sure it will be violent, and they will have explosions (somehow, all ancient combat now has explosions). Plus Vin is not a bad actor: he is maligned that way, but is is just fine (better than Arnold, that is for sure).

I know a lot of teenage girls who flocked to XXX. DiCaprio's last tow big films, after the Beach fiasco, were a Scorcese film, not driven by teenagers, and a Speilberg film, ditto. His endless teenage girl days were back in '96-97.

[Imran Siddiqui]

And grow a beard. Arnold with a beard?

[Wernazuma III]

Definitely no Ridley Scott film can make the race - Gladiator made my guts come up, awful movie. Russell Crowe now is under damnatio too, just for acting in that stupid movie, though he's "innocent", i.e. not the reason for Gladiator having been a bad movie.

[Az]

Just for imran:

Thank somethingawful.com for this pic.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Gladiator was awesome . Loved that movie. Great epic, in the old 'Ben Hur' style.

Az:

[GePap]

I have to go with Wern., Gladiator sucked Salty Chocolate balls. Terrible depcition of the Roman empire, and the ideas were crap. Oh wait, the emperor just can;t have this moron stabbed in prison, or poisoned, cause the mob loves him...riiight.., like the mob would not forget him in a second if he had an "accident" in prison, ad root for someone new.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Bah! It was definetly a good, fun movie. I enjoyed it very much.

It's like saying Saving Private Ryan wasn't that good because it was a terrible depiction of WW2 .

[Az]

plot holes! who would imagined that! Matrix is still a great movie, despite the plot holes.

[Ned]

GePap, Inaccurate? It is my understanding that Commodus did in fact die in the Colliseum.

The one point I thought it got a little innacurate was when Commodus returned to Rome and road into a forum where a large number of "legions" were arrayed in large square formations. If they were legions, each of the squares of men would be arround 5000 in strength. There were about 30 of these arrayed in the forum for a total strength of 150,000.

Now that would have been half the Roman Army. I think that such an event never happened in the whole history of the Empire.

Still, the display of military strength was quite impressive.