Gold House Has Shared the 2022 A100 List and will Launch the First-Ever Gold Gala

Gold House — the leading Asian and Pacific Islander changemaker community that unites, invests in, and promotes API creative and companies — has announced its annual A100 List. The list recognizes the 100 APIs that have impacted American culture and society during the last year. Gold House has also revealed that for the first time ever, these honorees will be honored and celebrated in person!

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Netflix Announces Inaugural Cohort of the Future Gold Film Fellowship

Netflix’s Fund for Creative Equity Initiative have announced their inaugural cohort of the Future Gold Film Fellowship. Netflix Golden, the company’s newest social media channel for the pan-Asian diaspora, shared the news earlier today.

Working with Gold House and Tribeca, Netflix created a program designed to elevate three Asian and Pacific Islander directors. This year, Lloyd Lee Choi, Erin Lau, and Derek Nguyen were selected for the fellowship.

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Celebrate Earth Day and Netflix’s ‘Stowaway’ with Daniel Dae Kim and NASA Astronaut Leroy Chiao

It’s Earth Day! It’s also the premiere of The Nerds of Color’s favorite Daniel Dae Kim’s space drama Stowaway on Netflix. 

To celebrate this event, the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE) brought together NASA astronaut and research engineer, Leroy Chiao, and Kim for an exclusive Actor Astronaut vs NASA Astronaut interview. 

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NOC Review: ‘Stowaway’ is Thought-Provoking and Soulful

We’ve seen it a lot in our lifetimes, but after decades of films like The Right Stuff, Apollo 13, or The Martian, studios are finding that there’s something about space movies that usually allows for filmmakers to speak more profoundly about universal truths regarding humanity. Much of the time, it is about the strength of the human spirit, and the will and determination to survive. And Netflix’s Stowaway, is no exception. However, interestingly enough, where Stowaway deviates from the formula, is that it introduces the twist of a philosophical conundrum that says more about humanity than many other films I’ve seen in years: what if literally not everyone actually can survive? What options do you have then?

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Crushing on Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, and Shamier Anderson of Netflix’s ‘Stowaway’

As you can tell from the title and the banner image of this post, we really got into the hard hitting questions about philosophy, humanity, and politics during this interview, and in no way talked about mine or anyone’s respective crushes on Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, or Shamier Anderson.

Okay. That’s a lie. It’s just unavoidable when you get on a call with those three.

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Check out the First Look Images of Netflix’s ‘Stowaway’

Netflix has recently released images for the upcoming sci-fi thriller, Stowaway. Directed by Joe Penna, the film stars Toni Collette, Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, and Shamier Anderson as a space crew headed to Mars. After an unintended stowaway accidentally causes severe damage to the spaceship’s life support systems, the crew are forced to make an impossible decision.

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Disney’s ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ Comes at a Poignant Time for Asian Americans

There’s no question the global pandemic has affected the lives of many within the United States having the highest COVID-19 cases and death rate. The previous administration under President Donald Trump blamed China for the deadly coronavirus, labeling the disease as the “China Virus” and, more broadly, putting targets on the backs of Asian Americans by fellow citizens who are angry by the economic and social impact of the pandemic. Since then, there has been a rise in Anti-Asian hate crimes throughout the U.S. After multiple attacks on the elderly Asian population, the media started to notice, thanks to the help of Asian American advocates and allies pushing for these stories to be shared. Multiple brands, including Disney, Nike, and Apple, began releasing statements condemning the attacks on Asians and where people can donate and show support.

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Disney’s ‘Raya and The Last Dragon’ Announces the Rest of the Cast

During a special presentation with select press last Tuesday, the creative team behind Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon revealed the rest of the ensemble that joins Kelly Marie Tran and Awkwafina in the first Southeast Asian-inspired fantasy animation set to release this March. Set in the fantasy world of Kumandra, humans and dragons coexisted in harmony. But when an evil force called the Druun threaten their world, the dragons sacrificed themselves to save humanity. Now, 500 years later, the Druun have returned and it is up to Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) to track down the last dragon, Sisu (Awkwafina), and find the missing pieces to the Dragon Gem to rid their land of evil and unite its divided people.

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Full Talent Line-Up Announced for the DC FanDome

Way back in June, the first details about the DC FanDome, DC’s fan-driven virtual convention, began to emerge. In said article, I said stay tuned to The Nerds of Color for more news on DC FanDome. And well, loyal readers, I aim to keep that promise, and do the opposite of what my dad did that time he promised to take us to Disneyland but didn’t!

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Netflix’s ‘Always Be My Maybe’ Reveals Release Date and Teaser

The most anticipated romantic comedy of the year Always Be My Maybe has finally released a teaser. Well, most anticipated rom-com for Asian Americans everywhere. The film is set to release on May 31 on Netflix and stars comedian Ali Wong (Baby Cobra) and Randall Park (Fresh Off the Boat).

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Daniel Dae Kim on ‘Hellboy,’ Asian Superheroes, and Rom-Coms

Daniel Dae Kim has been a busy man.

Since 2004, Kim has been a fixed entity on our television screens through ABC’s mystery series LOST and CBS’s Hawaii Five-0. Since leaving Five-0, Kim has been working nonstop on acting and being an executive producer.

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Netflix’s ‘Always Be My Maybe’ Starring Ali Wong and Randall Park Begins Production

Netflix’s Always Be My Maybe, starring comedians Ali Wong and Randall Park, started filming this week in Vancouver, Canada. Written by Wong, Park, and Michael Golamco, the romantic comedy is about childhood sweethearts, Sasha (Wong) and Marcus (Park), who have … Continue reading Netflix’s ‘Always Be My Maybe’ Starring Ali Wong and Randall Park Begins Production

Entertainment Weekly’s Asian AF Covers

This morning, Entertainment Weekly unveiled Shirley Li’s cover story featuring the highly anticipated romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians — which is set to hit cinemas on August 17, 2018. Seeing Constance Wu and Henry Golding looking fab on the cover got us thinking, how many EW covers* have featured Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders? So we dug into the EW archives and unearthed the following.

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Marvel, Please Cast Daniel Dae Kim as Namor the Sub-Mariner

On a recent episode of Kevin Smith’s Fatman on Batman podcast, Marvel Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada revealed that Marvel Studios has retained the rights to Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Of course, this isn’t the first time Quesada has assumed the rights to Namor had returned to Marvel — and Namor’s movie rights are some of the most confusing in comic book movie world. Still, it’s long overdue for a movie featuring one of the high-profile members of Marvel’s Illuminati, not to mention the fact that Namor is a perfect opportunity to cast an Asian American male as a lead in the MCU!

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Live-Action Akira: An All-Asian American Dream Cast

With all the debate this week over cross-racial and trans-racial casting of comic book movies, one aspect that hasn’t really been discussed in depth yet is the phenomenon of Hollywood White-washing of explicitly non-White characters in live-action adaptations. Famously, Aang of The Last Airbender was played in the live-action adaptation (directed by M. Night Shyamalan) by a young White actor despite repeated references in the comics to Aang’s non-White racial makeup. More recently, a non-comic book (but nonetheless grindhouse-esque cult classic) Korean movie called Oldboy is being remade in Hollywood with an all-White cast.

With the existing dearth of non-White faces in film, let alone comic book film, it’s safe to say that most of us can agree that cross-racially casting a non-White character with White actors is problematic.

A few years back, Hollywood was also rumoured to be developing a live-action adaptation of the landmark anime, Akira. At one point, the film was going to star Zac Efron, and although he has since backed out, it’s still unlikely that today’s Hollywood will cast Asian actors to play Akira‘s all-Japanese cast of characters.

And why not? Hollywood typically argues that there aren’t enough (or talented) non-White talent in Hollywood.

Well, that argument sounds like complete trash to me.

After the jump, check out a re-post of something I wrote in 2010, containing my own all Asian/Asian-American casting of a hypothetical Akira live-action movie.

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