Whether or not you’re thrilled by the idea of NBC sending Rosemary’s Baby through the remake machine for a new miniseries, you have to admit that casting Zoe Saldana is pretty damn cool. Uhura won’t be having for any of this demon spawn nonsense.
We previously heard that NBC’s four-hour miniseries will be an “updated remake” of the Ira Levin book upon which the 1968 classic horror film was based. The only “update” we know of so far is that it’ll take place in Paris, not New York. It’ll probably be missing the nudity, too, because… network television. But unless director Agnieszka Holland (The Killing, The Wire, Treme) screws up big-time it’ll still have the creeping terror and “OMGWTFNO” moments of the original. One of the writers is James Wong, who penned several episode of American Horror Story, which he also produces. And that’s a show that definitely gets its psychological horror on. So I’m optimistic.
As Rosemary, a woman with one of the scariest pregnancy stories in film/literary history, Saldana will of course be stepping into the shoes of Mia Farrow, who starred in the 1968 film. An actress of color playing a role that was originally played by a white woman? It’s like a karmic favor to us for having put up with Khan being whitewashed in Star Trek Into Darkness.
In the last week or so we’ve seen Saturday Night Live add their first black female cast members in six years. They also added two black female writers. This year Scandal‘s Kerry Washington became the first person to be nominated for the Best Lead Actress (Drama) Emmy in 18 years. Sleepy Hollow. And upcoming shows now include a Saldana-starring Rosemary’s Baby for NBC and a sci-fi extravaganza about a black female astronaut for CBS. I’m not gonna stand here and say everything is fine and dandy in terms of representation in TV. There’s still a long way to go, and the SNL casting in particular was way too long in coming. But it does seem like more and more networks have at least begun widening the playing field to include more and more POC leads. It’s progress.
(via: The Wrap)
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