Video Blogs
TV Shows:
Find Articles On:
Navigation |
Sundance not very gay ... again
The Sundance Film Festival just announced the line-up for their big annual blow-out which launches January 17th in Park City, Utah. Alas, there isn't a whole lot of gay again this year. I checked over the listings and the only two things that popped out at me included the film adaptation of Michael Chabon's The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and the documentary Derek about director Derek Jarman who died of AIDS in 1994. UPDATE: Our cinephiliac contributor Adam Lubitow spotted UK doc Be Like Others, which is about transgender Iranian men. Also, the U.S. doc American Teen, which follows four high school students in Indiana, has been accused of offering to pay subjects to "act gay" for the film. As I'm neither a huge fan of documentaries or Derek Jarman, it's Pittsburgh I'm most curious about. Jon Foster (pictured above) plays the bisexual Art Bechstein who falls into a love triangle with a married couple. It's been years since I've read the book, but I recollect loving it and am very interested to see how they handle the gay plot threads. The movie also stars Mena Suvari, Sienna Miller, and, best of all, Peters Sarsgaard, whom gay fans no doubt remember from his turn in Kinsey. It does give me a bit of pause that the film is directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber who last directed Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. There are still some other announcements to come from Sundance and we'll keep you posted! BTW, after the jump I've included the first production diary from the shooting of the film. Submitted by on Wed, 2007-11-28 17:58. |
User login Recent comments
Recent blog posts
|
MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH--The Film
Not sure if you'll recall but I first brought this to the attention of AfterElton back in March 2007...
I'm the moderator of the official MOP Film Boycott: www.myspace.com/mysteriesofpittsburgh
I've read the RMT screenplay adaptation of Chabon's novel and only about 15% of the original story remains intact. What's most insulting to me is RMT's complete removal of the one truly gay character, Arthur Lecomte, in favor of turning the one truly straight character, Cleveland Arning, into a bisexual.
RMT has also reduced "glamor-girl" Phlox Lombardi to Art's "boss and sometimes girlfriend" (she's barely in the film and goes so far as to send her new b/f to beat poor Art up when he dumps her for Jane, aka Sienna Miller.) Don't even get me started when it comes to Sienna, aka Jane!
What's most disheartening to me is knowing that Chabon himself gave RMT the "thumbs up" in doing all of this. Either Hollywood paid him a pretty price or he's (once again) distancing himself from the all-too close to home story that first put him on the literary map.
Anyone wishing to obtain a copy of the script can email me: bechstein[at]yahoo[dot]com
Don't get me wrong... It's a GOOD script and I think will make for an interesting film. But in no way is it MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH. (One can't help but think RMT is trying to ride on Chabon's name to lure fans of the novel in and I'm here to warn you, "Do not be fooled!")
BAND FAGS! by Frank Anthony Polito
Kensington Books/ISBN: 978-0-7582-2265-7/$15.00
available June 2008