I just read an article where the director said all the fans that didn't like Idris Elba are racists. So now no matter what, I'm not watching the movies. Not if he is directing. ...Seriously, whoever thinks he is a great choice as Roland obviously didn't read the series AT ALL. I wonder if these same people would be OK with Leo Dicaprio playing Malcom X or Martin Luther King??! It just makes no sense! What the heck are they thinking??!!!!
If it's the article I think it is, that wasn't the director, that was Akiva Goldsman, who wrote the first script for this thing and is still attached as one of four producers. Goldsman is pretty much the dictionary definition of Hollywood Hack, and his involvement on any level has had me worried for the entire time.
Also, I have to agree that using real people as examples of the wrong-headedness of color-blind casting isn't really a good argument. Instead, let's think of fictional characters written as black, and preferably characters from alternate universes as Roland is.
My favorite argument is comparing Ged from
A Wizard of Earthsea, who is supposed to look mediterranean or aboriginal, but was portrayed in the SyFy miniseries as a blonde haired, blue eyed boy. The author, Ursula K. LeGuin, blew a gasket as did fans of the book. But his race was completely incidental, so why did it matter then if it shouldn't matter now where Roland is concerned? Could it be because the entire "race is incidental" argument only seems to work if the race in question is white?