Deepak Chopra, naive filmmaker
The Washington Post went to the NY ComicCon, and found there filmmaker Deepak Chopra, who wants to make some made-for-movie superheroes, but who also had this to say:
Chopra is outside a Coffee Bean in Santa Monica, Calif., where he's drinking a cup of coffee containing two scoops of white chocolate powder. ("It's my own concoction," he says.) He sounds like a guy living the sweet life. He's just come from a two-hour workout, which included weight training and yoga, and he's taking the rest of the day off.What a naive idea to think that the State Dept. can get something right.
As he tells it, he isn't in this comics thing just to make a few bucks off a major motion picture. No, he's thinking way bigger than that. He believes comic books can bridge cultural gaps, including the yawning maw that stands between the United States and its enemies.
"Kids all over the world are reading comic books," he says, "and if we could create a transcultural hero that appeals to kids in countries like Iran and Syria, that could have a huge impact. We've even made a proposal to the State Department to study celebrity heroes in Islamic countries and make superheroes out of them. It's a good way -- "
Wait, you called the State Department?
"Yes."
What did they say?
"We had a conference call, and I think they were very receptive. Iran right now, more than 60 percent of the population is under 25. I think we should try to figure out how to capture the collective imagination of this new generation and see if we can get out of this old us-versus-them paradigm."
Labels: politics
