Big Gay Picture Show

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema and more

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema & more

Allen Leech Joins Bohemian Rhapsody Biopic As The ‘Friend’ Who Revealed Freddie Mercury Might Have AIDS

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Last week we found out who would be playing the rest of Queen opposite Rami Malek’s Freddie Mercury in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody (Ben Hardy as Roger Taylor, Joe Mazello as John Deacon and Gwilym Lee as Brian May). Now another actor has joined the cast, playing a man who could play a key role in the script and end up as the movie’s ‘villain’.

Allen Leech (Downton Abbey, The Imitation Game) will play Paul Prenter, according to Deadline. Prenter was a close friend (and probably former lover) of Freddie Mercury, who became his personal manager during the height of Queen’s fame. However, his reputation was forever sullied when in the late 80s he took payment from the British tabloids for details about Mercury’s personal life, such as telling them that two of Freddie’s former lovers had died of AIDS. Inevitable that added to growing media speculation that the singer also had the disease (something that wasn’t publicly known at the time). Afterwards the two men never spoke again.

It’s not known if the film will tell that part of the story though, as earlier versions of the script ended around the time of Queen’s triumphant performance at Live Aid. However, that was before Bryan Singer signed on to direct, so things may have changed.

Bohemian Rhapsody starts shooting soon, with plans for an awards season release at the end of 2018.

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The Imitation Game Trailers – Benedict Cumberbatch takes on Alan Turing in the BFI London Film Festival opener

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imitation-game-slideIt’s been a case of co-ordination today, as the moment the BFI announced that The Imitation Game is set to open the 58th BFI London Film Festival, Studiocanal released the UK trailer and in the US The Weinstein Company unveiled theirs.

The movie will open the LFF with a gala screening on Wednesday 8th October at the Odeon Leicester Square, with a live cinecast from the red carpet and simultaneous screenings taking place at cinemas across the UK.

You can take a look at the trailers below.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘THE IMITATION GAME is a nail-biting race against time following Alan Turing (pioneer of modern-day computing and credited with cracking the German Enigma code) and his brilliant team at Britain’s top-secret code-breaking centre, Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II. Turing, whose contributions and genius significantly shortened the war, saving thousands of lives, was the eventual victim of an unenlightened British establishment, but his work and legacy live on.

‘THE IMITATION GAME stars Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek Into Darkness, TV’s Sherlock) as Alan Turing and Keira Knightley (Atonement) as close friend and fellow code-breaker Joan Clarke, alongside a top notch cast including Matthew Goode (A Single Man), Mark Strong (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Rory Kinnear (Skyfall), Charles Dance (Gosford Park, TV’s Game of Thrones), Allen Leech (In Fear, TV’s Downton Abbey) and Matthew Beard (An Education).’

Director Morten Tyldum comments on the LFF announcement, “I am thrilled to be returning to London to share The Imitation Game with the audience of the BFI London Film Festival. The experience of directing this film has been so tremendously rewarding, and I am humbled to share Alan’s Turing’s incredible story on Opening Night.”

Of course Turing was gay, and to be honest the trailers are unlikely to assuage those worried the film will whitewash his sexuality. Although the US trailer does make oblique reference to it, you could still easily believe Keira Knightley is going to be the film’s ‘love interest’. Many will be keeping a close eye on The Imitation Game, as the importance of Turing’s story isn’t just in cracking German codes during World War II and the fact his work helped lead to modern computers, but that after the war he was prosecuted for his sexuality, shunned and made to chemically castrate himself, which eventually led to his suicide.

To sideline that is to do a disservice to a man who may have made many more breakthroughs if he didn’t live in a society that was happy to use him to help save the country, but then destroyed him after because of their narrow view of human love.

Hopefully the trailers are the ones sidelining the issue and not the movie. We’ll have to wait and see. (Many other mainstream films with gay content ignore that aspect in trailers that cater to the masses, with the logic that you won’t turn off gay-friendly people by not including it, but you could turn off others if you do).

The movie opens across the UK on November 15th. [Read more…]

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In Fear Trailer – Alice Englert, Allen Leech and Iain De Caestecker get intense

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We enjoyed In Fear when we caught it at Frightfest, and now Studiocanal has released a new trailer, giving us all a fresh look at the movie.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘Starring Alice Englert (Beautiful Creatures, Ginger and Rosa), Allen Leech (Downton Abbey) and Iain De Caestecker (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), ‘In Fear’ is an intense psychological horror about a young couple’s fight to make it through the night. Home invasion but in a car. In real-time. Tom and Lucy are trapped in a maze of country roads with only their vehicle for protection, terrorised by an unseen tormentor hell-bent on exploiting their worst fears – fear of the dark, fear of the unknown, fear of themselves.’

It’s out in the UK on November 15th. [Read more…]

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Downton’s Allen Leech Joins Benedict Cumberbatch In Alan Turing Biopic Imitation Game

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allen-leechIf you’re an up and coming British actor who wants to get movie roles, you need get cast in either Downton Abbey or Game Of Thrones. Now another of Downton’s stars is moving to the big screen as Variety reports that Allen Leech – aka’s the Abbey’s Tom Branson – has signed up to appear in The Imitation Game.

The film is a biopic of famed codebreaker and father of computers Alan Turing, with Benedict Cumberbatch set for the lead role. Turing is best known for helping the Allies defeat the Germans in World War II by breaking codes and building machines that were the forerunners of modern computers (which were based on his theories). However, in the 1950s he was prosecuted by the British government for being gay.

Turing made the extreme decision to undergo chemical castration instead of going to prison. In 1954 he died from cyanide poisoning, with many believing he killed himself by dosing an apple with the substance (although there are still some who believe it was accidental).

Leech will apparently play a Scottish spy for the Soviets who plots against Cumberbatch’s character. There’s no news on exactly how the spy will fit into the movie.

There’s already some controversy about the film, with the man who wrote the biography it’s based on, Andrew Hodges, saying he’s, “alarmed by the inaccuracies in it”, most notably the fact they have turned fellow code breaker Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley) into a “complicated love interest”, with Hodges saying “They have built up the relationship with Joan much more than it actually was.”

He’s also concerned about a central romance with  John Cairncross, who was later identified as the fifth man in the British spy ring that included Kim Philby and Guy Burgess. Hodges has said, “Their relationship is invented”.

However the producers have said that while they’ve taken the creative liberties the screenwriter is still being worked on and they want to get it right.

Morten Tyldum is set to direct the movie.

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