William Burroughs’ follow-up to his novel Junkie, Queer, wasn’t published for 30 years, partly due to its homosexual content (Burroughs having accidentally shot his wife to death around the time he wrote it in the 50s didn’t help either). However it turns out Steve Buscemi reckons it’ll make a good movie, so he’s lining up a great cast to help bring it to life.
Vulture has been talking to Oren Moverman, who wrote the script for Queer, who told them that Guy Pearce, Ben Foster, and Kelly MacDonald will all star in the movie. Burroughs’ book is about William Lee, an American in Mexico City in the 1940s, who travels to Ecuador with his reluctant lover, Eugene Allerton, in search of the drug Yage. Lee is essentially Burroughs alter-ego after he killed his wife, weighed down by guilt, drugs, lust and despair; seeking oblivion. It’s also a more straightforward narrative than much of Burroughs’ later work, making it easier to adapt into a movie.
It’s not certain what roles Pearce, Foster and MacDonald will play, or indeed when Steve Buscemi will direct the movie, although it’s expected after the end of shooting on the next season of Boardwalk Empire.
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