"O Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore Art Thou Romeo?" Evidently In Military School

Lots and lots of kissing

Last week when Matt Doyle popped up briefly on Gossip Girl, I realized just how much I'd missed him. Those puppy dog eyes just don't play fair.

I knew he'd cut his hair short to do a movie with a military theme and now we have the first trailer for Private Romeo, a retelling of the classic by William Shakespeare. It doesn't look as if we're breaking a ton of new ground here, with a gay twist on Romeo & Juliet. But it does have quite a bit of passion and flirting in the first trailer, and it has more passionate boy-on-boy snogging than As the World Turns managed over four years. The film is described as:

When eight cadets are left behind at an isolated military high school, the greatest romantic drama ever written seeps out of the classroom and permeates their lives. Incorporating the original text of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, YouTube videos, and lip-synched Indie rock music, Private Romeo takes us to a mysterious and tender place that only Shakespeare could have inspired.

The entire cast is distractingly handsome, and they do tie in the feuding families in a way that resonates with the bullying headlines of today. Hale Appleman is the lead, and he's been in gay-themed movies before, including playing Judd in Pedro.

Execution is key when dealing with as retelling of a classic story, and Doyle and Appleman have the acting chops to make it work. Private Romeo doesn't yet have a release date, and I'm guessing will make the gay festival circuit. Will you be seeing it?