Joe Wright is the very good director behind the most recent Pride and Prejudice adaptation and Atonement, who has now set his sights on giving Peter Pan another update. Sure. Can’t have too many Peter Pan updates. But yesterday’s rumor that he had cast The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo‘s Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily has not gone over well. Tiger Lily is a Native American (well, a Native Neverlandian. It’s complicated.) Rooney Mara is not. Anticipating the backlash, the studio released a statement saying “The world being created is multi-racial/international – and a very different character than previously imagined.” And that might be a valid excuse, but every single actor that’s been cast so far is white so, well, stay tuned.
Given Peter Pan’s past history with very troubling stereotypes of Native Americans, and the recent dust-up over Johnny Depp’s casting as Tonto in The Lone Ranger, Hollywood’s track record with this subject leaves a lot to be desired …
