Even diehard Gerard Butler fans often find it difficult to like the fantasy flop Gods of Egypt. This was already evident at the box office: According to The Numbers, the film only brought in 139 million dollars from a budget of 140 million dollars. Ouch!
But even before the film was released, there were skeptical voices about it. Its setting, Egypt, is apparently populated entirely by white people. Whitewashing is the name given to this now critically questioned Hollywood practice of not casting people of color in major roles. But by 2016, the faux pas was so obvious that filmmaker Alex Proyas and Lionsgate officially apologized, as a report by the Hollywood Reporter shows.
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Gerard Butler felt the criticism of the fantasy flop Gods of Egypt went too far
During the press tour for the film Geostorm, Butler was asked about the whitewashing allegations. Yahoo! Movies asked if he regretted his involvement, to which he gave a somewhat puzzling answer:
No, […] I understand the [Whitewashing-Kritik] in general, but in the case of our film, one of our main characters was based on an Egyptian god who was not black. We had Ethiopian [im Film]we had Egyptians [im Film]we had different actors from all over the world and that was never – they came from everywhere. So I thought that was a bit muchto damage our film like this.
The actor, who appeared as a deity alongside Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Geoffrey Rush, Bryan Brown, Brenton Thwaites and Elodie Yung, unfortunately did not make it clear which “white” god from Egypt he was referring to. Only Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman was part of the main cast of the Egyptian pantheon of gods as a black man.
Watch the German trailer for the film Gods of Egypt here:
Gods of Egypt – Trailer 2 (German) HD
God of Egypt: Anything but divine?
Even on Moviepilot, Gods of Egypt only received a 4.9 in the community rating. On Filmstarts, the 2-star review concludes:
At its best, Gods Of Egypt is an entertaining and hearty soap opera about the gods, but despite many beautiful details and a well-chosen cast, the fantasy epic sinks into monotony and a storm of special effects for long stretches.
If you want to see it for yourself, you can find the film on the Amazon channels Battlezone, Filmtastic and Galactic Stream. It is also available to rent or buy on Amazon, Apple TV, Sky or MagentaTV.