Considering the books have already come under criticism due to their supposed racism, I have little doubt this issue will be dealt with very carefully if and when the movies get made.

If you want to see how a HHB movie will work on the big screen, go watch Prince of Persia: The Sands Of Time. Not all that similar in terms of plot, but in terms of locations, sets, costumes, visuals, design and everything else, it pretty much provides you a complete "pre-vis" on how to portray such a world as Calormene in a way that attracted hardly any controversy, and brought on very little accusation of racism (especially in comparison to The Last Airbender).

In fact, a complete lack of controversy probably didn't do much good for the boxoffice of Prince of Persia (there is nothing like a bit of controversy to boost boxoffice takings), and that in fact might be the more worrying thing here - that movie studios would look at the under performance of a film like Prince of Persia and decide that big budget Arabian Nights style adventure movies just aren't a sound investment right now. For whatever reason, audiences simply didn't take to Prince of Persia (especially in America it should be noted) and so Walden may find it hard to get the backing for such a similarly styled movie as HHB would surely be.

They don't have to advertise HaHB as an Arabian Nights styled movie.

This will be a tricky thing for the film makers. When C.S.Lewis wrote the chronicles there wasn't a war in the middle east and we didn't have a global network like we do now. Even if that weren't the case, Aravis and Emeth are both prime arguments against the notion of the chronicles being racist.

They don't have to advertise HaHB as an Arabian Nights styled movie.

Caloremen is an Arabian Nights styled country. I think C.S.Lewis intended that to add a sense of wonder to his mostly English audience.

I think it should be an Arabian Nights styled country, but the trailers don't have to emphasise that.

They could show a lot of Archenladnd and the battle and the chases from Aslan, a few talking scenes, and shots of Shasta and Aravis riding through the desert.

If you want you can say every film is racist, someone will always be offended. Wheter they're black, muslim, asians, christians, europeans, women, man, gays etc.
I mean all those World War II films or those racist to Germans?
All those crime movies featuring Italians and Russians are those racist?
And i don't think HB or LB could get even half as controversial as '300'.

As I look through this thread, I see a lot of you are fairly new to the site. I would encourage you to take a look at this article here written by Devin Brown a year or so ago. We did a reading group on it on the old site and it's just excellent.
http://www.narniaweb.com/resources-links/are-the-chronicles-of-narnia-sexist-and-racist/

The fact of the matter is that these books are NOT racist. Not even close. Those who claim they are either haven't read them, or have read them and are desperately looking for a way to cry foul on Lewis's work.

Aravis and Emeth are two really good examples of how NOT racist Lewis is. Think of it this way.... would a member of the KKK write about a white man and a black woman getting married, having a child (one of the greatest rules of the country at that), and living happily ever after? I think not.

The reason why people call out The Last Airbender and Prince of Persia as being racist is because in the films they cast white actors as characters who, in the source materials, are Asian and Persian, respectively. They basically "whitewash" the movie to try to reach a larger audience. In The Last Airbender, you go from a source material where ALL of the characters are of a nondescript Asian race to a film where the "good guys" are all white, and the villains are all portrayed by darker skinned actors.

This shouldn't be an issue with HHB, as there are "good" and "bad" characters of both races. If the production decides to change the race and culture of the Calormens in an attempt to not offend anyone, I would consider that more racist than casting actors who fit in with the original source material.

I think it is illogical to say that HHB and LB are racist. I agree with Rilian The Disenchanted, when he said

I mean all those World War II films or those racist to Germans?
All those crime movies featuring Italians and Russians are those racist?
And i don't think HB or LB could get even half as controversial as '300'.

I think people are just trying to make much ado about nothing, if they say HBB and LB are racist.

The reason why people call out The Last Airbender and Prince of Persia as being racist is because in the films they cast white actors as characters who, in the source materials, are Asian and Persian, respectively.

The Last Airbender, yes. Prince of Persia, no. There is a popular misconception that Persians are Arabs, but it is flatly untrue. Persians prided themselves on being the original Aryan race, and even today the majority of them are Caucasian. The Persian Empire encompassed an incredibly wide variety of races. Add to this the fact that the Prince of Persia has always traditionally been a street urchin adopted by the king - his ethnicity has never mattered. The fact that he was an outsider brought into royalty is the point of the story.

Sorry, I get a bit sore when people lump those two movies together, can you tell?

Back to the topic at hand: I'm with fantasia_kitty. People are so quick to jump on Lewis for racial stereotyping, but are then content to ignore the fact that he deliberately included characters that went against those stereotypes, who stood for unity of all races and nations.

I also agree with fantasia_kitty.

I would be more worried about VDT being called racist. When the Telmarines are bad they're Spanish but when they turn good they're British???

I think it will be alright. Rilian the Disenchanted is correct in saying that people will always find something to get upset about no matter what you do.

I hope all the movies are made and I hope they don't change the material because it may offend someone. That would be awful. I'd rather them not make the movies if they're just gonna change every little thing that could be slighlty offensive.

I guess its true.. sticking to the original material would most likely keep Walden Media from being critiqued too harshley. If the books are not commonly percieved as racist, and the film adaptions will follow the basic plot lines of the book, then we have nothing to fear. Personally, I have always had trouble understanding what race Shasta is. He is not actually a Calormene, but an Archenlander. Does that not make him Caucasian?

Shasta is described as fair-haired and light-skinned.

If the books are not commonly percieved as racist, and the film adaptions will follow the basic plot lines of the book, then we have nothing to fear.

Oh, there will be criticism. There will ALWAYS be criticism. But I'm not going to worry about it because I believe it's unfounded.