Last week, I blogged about Taking Woodstock,the upcoming biopic of Elliot Tiber, the gay man who was instrumental in bringing the music festival to fruition. Well, it seems that Academy Award-winning Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee has chosen a leading man, and in a surprising decision, it's stand up comedian (and Beatles-tressed) Demetri Martin. (Martin is currently in negotiations, so nothing's signed yet.)

Demetri is best known for his "Trendspotting" bits on The Daily Show, and I've had the hots for him I've been a fan of his deadpan style for a while. I'd be curious to learn what kind of casting process came up with his name, though. He certainly isn't the first one that springs to mind when you think of "gay hippie" ... although he certainly has the hair for it.

After the break, you can see one of my favorite Demetri bits, "Material Enhancers".

Earlier this week, I blogged about the upcoming gay themed film Taking Woodstock and its director, Ang Lee. Ang's partner on the project, James Schamus, is about to receive the Golden Gate award from GLAAD, and is one of the most influential gay allies in Hollywood.

As head of Focus Features (a division of Universal), he's collaborated three times with Ang on gay-themed projects: the aforementioned Taking Woodstock, 1993's The Wedding Banquet (which he also co-wrote), and of course Brokeback Mountain. He also greenlit out director Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven, and the film 8 Women from queer director Francois Ozon. Most recently, he's responsible for getting Milk, by out director Gus Van Sant, out of the gate after years of delays.

Variety interviewed him to find out why he gives the go ahead to such potentially non-blockbuster projects:

"Schamus doesn't consider movies with gay themes particularly risky enterprises. After all, he says, any film -- even a horror pic -- faces its own challenges in the theatrical marketplace. "A lot of movies bomb every weekend," he points out. He says if he wanted to play it safe, he would only make movies with gay Chinese cowboys since he has had the most success with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Brokeback." But he's found that deviating from the norm often works best. "When we've parted ways with formula, we've done pretty well," he says. Schamus admits homophobia is an issue, but says it shouldn't be a deterrent. The problem, he asserts, is not the homophobia itself but "the assumption that homophobia has an effect."

Obviously, Hollywood would be a better place with more men like him in charge.

Ang Lee, the Academy Award-winning director of the landmark film Brokeback Mountain, is set to boost gay visibility yet again with the biopic Taking Woodstock. It's based on the memoir by Elliot Tiber, who was instrumental in bringing the famed music festival to a farm in upstate New York. From Tiber's website:

In the summer of 1969, Elliot Tiber's life changed in a way he never could have foreseen. Greenwich Village had become the mecca for gays in America. There, Elliot had socialized with the likes of Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Andy Warhol, and a talented young photographer named Robert Mapplethorpe, and yet had managed to keep his gay life a secret from his family. Then on Friday, June 27, Elliot walked into the Stonewall Inn and witnessed the riot that would galvanize the gay movement in the United States. And on July 17, when Elliot read that the Woodstock Concert promoters had lost their license to stage the show in Wallkill, he called to offer his help in finding a new venue. In the days that followed, Elliot found himself swept up in a vortex that would change his life forever.

Should be a fascinating movie, and with Ang at the helm, will definitely be visually splendid (this is, after all, the man who made Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), and be gay positive (in addition to Brokeback, he also made the 1993 gay comedy The Wedding Banquet).

With this film, and the upcoming Milk , it's heartening to see great filmmakers looking into our past, and telling the truth about our history.