Despite the many protests hurled against the casting for the upcoming
Avatar: The Last Airbender movie, the trailer released a few months ago in June was another thing altogether. The near two-minute preview drew raves from fans, and it was all but one scene and one character! When the casting photos were released, however, the enthusiasm induced by the release of the trailer quickly died. And now discussions mostly involve racism, the inspiration behind the Avatar mythology, and others.

A little over two months after the release of the first mini-trailer, producer Frank Marshall announced via Twitter that Avatar: The Last Airbender fans may have to wait a little longer for the full trailer.

“For those of you wondering about Last Airbender, all is well in post and we r working on a trailer for Christmas,” he tweeted recently. The upcoming full trailer may include more of the cast and not just Aang (Noah Ringer). Just to get you up to speed, Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire fame will play villain Zuko, The Twilight Saga: New Moon’s Jackson Rathbone will appear as Sokka, and Nicola Peltz will play his sister Katara.

The Avatar: The Last Airbender movie, which is called only The Last Airbender to avoid confusion with the James Cameron film, is set for a July 2010 release.

The brouhaha involving the casting in the upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender movie has no doubt drawn harsh criticisms from both sides of the debate, some quite logical, some just totally - excuse me - stupid.

Joining the camp calling some casting decisions racist is the animatic director of the original Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series Dao Le, who sent a statement to Racebending.com calling the casting moves “a huge disappointment.”

“It’s just hard to believe they couldn’t find one Asian actor to hold any of the lead protagonist parts. Not one? This film is going to feel like some other Avatar story.”

“I always believed they were Asian, or even mixed Asian,” said Le, who was in charge of creating animatics, a type of moving storyboard created by mixing storyboards, stand-in images, and other elements of a scene in sequence with the dialogue, to help animators.

Le confirmed - to no one’s surprise, really - that the show was “heavily influenced” by Asian cultures, sharing that some of the characters were even modeled after some Asian members of the crew. “With the pre-dominantly white cast, it feels like all the Asian/Eastern influences, origins, what have you, were just a backdrop for these characters.”

Since Dao Le isn’t the first staff member of the animated series to cry foul over the purportedly racist casting for the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie, I seriously wonder if the people of the original series were consulted at all by Paramount.

At first, it would seem that it’s only the diehard fans of the show who see red whenever they remember. With this recently development, though, people who don’t see anything wrong with casting Caucasian leads for now patently Asian and Inuit roles might think twice.

After all, these are the people behind the original animated series. Their opinions should hold some weight.

Toronto-based toy company Spin Master has nabbed an exclusive deal with Nickelodeon and Viacom Consumer Products to be the master global toy licensor for all the forthcoming action figures, vehicles, and play sets en route to the theatrical release of the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie The Last Airbender on July 2010.

“M. Night Shyamalan and Paramount have done an incredible job of adapting the mythology of Avatar, the Nick TV show, into an imaginative and visually stunning live-action big-screen fantasy adventure film,” said Adam Beder, Spin Master’s licensing chief.

Some fans, however, would disagree with the toy company exec, as The Last Airbender has been embroiled in a controversy over casting issues, mostly involving Caucasian actors play purportedly East Asian characters.

Protagonist Aang, for instance, who is supposedly East Asian, will be played by Noah Ringer, who is white, while Inuit siblings Katara and Sokka will have white actors Nicola Peltz and Jackson Rathbone playing their roles. Lastly, seemingly Japanese Zuko will be played by British-Indian Dev Patel, previously given to Jesse McCartney.

Nevertheless, Nickelodeon’s Leigh Anne Brodsky said there still is “tremendous anticipation” for The Last Airbender. “Our co-branded product line will dive in to The Last Airbender’s rich story line and promises timeless play experiences for the original series’ super-fans, as well as for new fans of the film.”

There are ongoing online petitions decrying the supposedly racist casting and even suggestions to boycott the film. Rathbone was quoted as saying before that, “It’s one of those things where, hopefully, the audience will suspend disbelief a little bit.”

En route to its July 2, 2010 launch, the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie called The Last Airbender is quickly gathering hype, thanks to the trailer released recently. More than a year before The Last Airbender hits movie screens, the hit Nickelodeon series adaptation became a hit far beyond its original 6 to 11-year-old demo, no small thanks to its amazing and complete mythology and engaging storyline.

Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan, who takes the reins in The Last Airbender, tells If Magazine that he waited so long for something like Avatar: The Last Airbender, and it was kids who introduced him to the Nickelodeon animated series.

“I have always wanted to develop a long mythology based franchise like The Lord of the Rings,” he said. “But I had, until now, never found a good one where I could also add a little bit of my personal vision… I was offered other franchises, but passed. And then this one came from my own family - it was suggested by my children who loved the TV animated series. When I saw the cartoon I thought it was so well thought out in term of mythology. It had Buddhism, and martial Arts, and CGI [and it was] character based.”

Shyamalan adds that The Last Airbender will offer something more than a treat to the eyes, “but also for the mind and the soul.” He also said that the Avatar: The Last Airbender adaptation has “deeper issues” including genocide and balance and how everything is connected in the planet.

It’s an important movie, not just a blockbuster summer movie.”

Currently, The Last Airbender is the only movie announced for the July 4th holiday weekend of that year. It began filming in May this year, and he will need four or five huge soundstages in the Philadelphia area to produce the film.

My geek cred fails me here as Avatar: The Last Airbender is just one of those things I know very little about. The original series is available on Netflix Instant Watch, but the curse of being on the movie news wire is that time to sit and watch is pretty scarce.

So, I will have to rely on you Airbender fans to give your take on these first photos from USA Today (apparently it’s back to using the Avatar moniker despite James Cameron), and eagerly await your take on the controversy is raging around the film. Many fans are offended that M. Night Shyamalan didn’t cast Japanese actors. Others feel that’s an unneccessary sticking point as the world the characters inhabit is a fantasy one based on Asian culture, so that Shyamalan should be able to cast freely. Dev Patel just sits awkwardly in the middle of the debate — people are simultaneously annoyed he’s not Japanese and suspicious that the one non-white actor is cast in a villainous role.

Blissfully unaware of his unsuitability is newcomer Noah Ringer, who plays Aang. Apparently, he’s always gone by the nickname “Avatar” due to his resemblance to the cartoon character (he always sports a shaved head) and his lethal martial arts skills. He won the part after sending a home made DVD of himself … talk about an easy day for the casting director.

Give your thoughts, Airbender fans. And I promise, I’ll start watching the series this weekend … in the meantime, can you tell me what’s up with Aang’s hand?

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