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

Barbra Streisand Considering A Return To Directing

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While she had small roles in Meet The Focker and Little Fockers and will be seen in the upcoming The Guilt Trip, Barbra Streisand hasn’t directed a movie since 1996’s The Mirror Has Two Faces (indeed she’s only helmed three films since her 1983 helming debut, Yentl). Now Showbiz411 suggests she’s thinking of heading back behind the camera for a new romance.

The film is an epic love story about writer Erskine Caldwell and photojournalist Margaret Bourke White, with a script by Linda Yellen. Colin Firth and Cate Blanchett are apparently attached to star in the main roles. Bourke White was one of the first female photojournalist, while Caldwell wrote Southern-set novels like Tobacco Road.

Streisand is also continuing to develop a remake of the musical Gypsy, with her starring as Mama Rose, although it isn’t known how close to production that might be.

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Mireille Enos Trapped In Aton Egoyan’s Devil’s Knot

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Ever since the West Memphis Three were released from prison, it’s been known that The Sweet Hereafter helmer Atom Egoyan has been working on a movie about the case. Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth are already attached to star in the film, and Deadline reports that they’ve now been joined by The Killing actress Mireille Enos.

Egoyan is working from a script written by The Exorcism Of Emily Rose’s Scott Derrickson and Paul Boardman, about the West Memphis 3, who were convicted of the murder of three young boys in Arkansas in the mid 90s.

However even before they were convicted there were accusations of the investigation being bungled and the men being railroaded. The youths were accused of murdering the boys in a Satanic ritual, with many suspecting they had just been caught up in a panic over Satanism that was sweeping the US (and other parts of the world) at the time, with the evidence made to fit what the prosecutors wanted it to, rather than what it did.

After years of campaigning, high-profile documentaries (particularly Paradise Lost and its sequel, which had a huge impact on the case), the three men were finally released – although it should be noted that it was part of a plea deal and they weren’t exonerated. Enos will be Vicki Hutcheson, who becomes an important witness in the case and was a link between two of the boys.

While Enos has had plenty of praise for The Killing, her star is likely to rise soon due to her roles in Gangster Squad and World War Z.

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Rupert Everett Directing Oscar Wilde Biopic With Colin Firth

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It seems Colin Firth is going to spend much of the next year or so playing gay. Just yesterday we reported he is attached to a biopic of gay entertainer Noel Coward, covering his time in Las Vegas. Now Variety reports that Firth is set to play Oscar Wilde in a movie called The Happy Prince, which is being written and directed by Rupert Everett.

While Stephen Fry’s 1997 film, Wilde, concentrated on Wilde’s most productive years and the run up to the trial that ended up with him getting imprisoned on charges of sodomy and gross indecency, The Happy Prince focuses on Oscar’s final days. It will see Wilde considering his own failure through his trademark wit and irony. After his imprisonment, Wilde spent his days in self-imposed exile in France He briefly reunited with his love, Lord Alfred Douglas, but was kept away from his children. Although he published The Ballad Of Reading Gaol, he did very little writing and his health began to fail (partly due to poverty). He died of cerebral meningitis at the age of 46.

As well as Firth, Edward Fox, Emily Watson and Tom Wilkinson are also onboard the movie. While the movie will mark Everett’s directorial debut, he’s no stranger to Wilde, having starred in adaptations of The Importance Of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband. It’s due to shoot sumer 2013.

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Colin Firth Set To Play Gay Entertainer Noel Coward

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Noel Coward is a quintessentially English character, but the film Mad Dogs and Englishmen is set to give him a bit of a fish out of water spin, with Deadline reporting that Colin Firth is set to play the gay playwright, singer, composer, songwriter and actor, in a film about his time in Vegas.

Coward played the Desert Inn in 1955 to stand in for Liberace for a couple of weeks, who had fallen and had to cancel a string of dates. Willy Holtzman’s Mad Dogs screenplay will focus on Coward’s two-weeks in Vegas, and the relationship he forged with the piano player who backed him up on the gig.

Firth should make an excellent Coward, although it will be a challenge to pull off Noel’s unque style of entertainment, which was as much about him as any of his songs or stories. There’s no news on when it might shoot.

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Colin Firth Is Untouchable For Director Paul Feig

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It appears Bridesmaids director Paul Feig wants to head in a slightly different direction, with a movie that has space for some humour but also has the potential for plenty of Oscar-bait emotion. Variety reports he’s attached to write and direct Untouchable, The Weinstein Company’s planned remake of Eric Toledano and Oliver Nakache’s French hit The Intouchables, with Colin Firth attached to star.

Based on a true story, as recounted in Philippe Pozzo di Borgo’s heartwarming memoir Le Second Souffle, Untouchable is about an affluent aristocrat whose adventurous life changes dramatically following a crippling paragliding accident. Now quadriplegic and deeply depressed, he unleashes his frustration upon a string of caretakers until he meets one – a fiery Algerian immigrant – who refuses to suffer such abuse. Before long, these two stubborn and lonely men become unlikely friends.

Firth is in early talks to play the crippled man, so it’s not quite a done deal yet. It’s not clear when the movie will shoot,

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Nicole Kidman In Talks For The Railway Man

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Whatever happened to Nicole Kidman’s career? For a while she was the biggest actress on the planet, before her career seemed to drop off a cliff. However she’s still around and now Variety reports she’s set up a new role opposite Colin Firth in The Railway Man.

She’s taking over the role from Rachel Weisz, who was forced to drop out due to additional shooting being needed on The Bourne Legacy and Oz The Great And Powerful. Kidman was free and so she’s stepped into the breach, with shooting just about to start.

Director Jonathan Teplitzky’s (Burning Man) film is is based on Eric Lomax’s autobiography, which details his capture by Japanese soldiers in World War II, where he was sent to work on the infamous “death railway” in Burma. The story is split between his capture as a young soldier, and his life as an adult who still can’t fully grasp the torturous experience.

Colin Firth will play the adult Eric Lomax, while War Horse’s Jeremy Irvine will portray the younger version. Kidman will play his wife, Patti, who convinces him to set off on a journey to try and reconcile with his former captors.

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Colin Firth Joins Atom Egoyan’s Devil’s Knot

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Almost the moment the West Memphis 3 were released from prison, it was revealed Atom Egoyan was working on a movie about the case, which many believe was a major miscarriage of justice. Now Deadline reports that Colin Firth has joined Reese Witherspoon in the movie, which is titled Devil’s Knot.

The actor will play Ron Lax, a private investigator who was the first pro bono supporter of the defendants when they headed to trial in 1993. Lax built one of the most prominent private investigative firms in the Southeast, and offered his services for free to the defendants, who at the time were reviled because many truly believed they had killed small children, amid sensationalised reports about devil worship and ritualistic sacrifice.

Against that backdrop, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley were convicted, despite there not being a shred of physical evidence against them, and the fact the reports of devil worship were completely unfounded. Lax helped find the DNA in the knots that bound one of the victims, which cast suspicion on Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Steven Branch, one of the 8-year old murder victims.

Reese Witherspoon will play Pam Hobbs, the mother of Branch. She initially believed the trio murdered her son, but was eventually persuaded that the three suspects were innocent and wrongly accused.

The script is based on investigative reporter Mara Leveritt’s 2003 book Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three. The book is an in-depth chronicle of the trials that sent the three to prison for the murder of the three boys who were found hog-tied in a drainage ditch. The project is set to start filming this summer in Louisiana.

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Clive Owen May Be Oldboy’s Villain

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If you’d been hoping Colin Firth would play the bad guy in Spike Lee’s reimagining of Oldboy, you’re out of luck, as while he was in talks for the role last month, he recently passed on the project, and now Twitch reports Lee has offered the role to Clive Owen instead.

Lee previously worked with Clive Owen on the 2006 heist thriller Inside Man, which may work in favour of the actor signing on, although there’s no info on how interested Clive is. Twitch, which seems to have the inside track on the production, also reports Mia Wasikowska has been offered the female lead in the movie.

Although many still feel it’s sacriledge to touch Park Chan Wook’s movie, it seems it’s going to happen anyway. The original followed a man seeking revenge against those who kept him in confinement for over 15 years.

General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser

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Peter Cattaneo May Have Bridget Jones’ Baby

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Peter Cattaneo scored a gargantuan hit with The Full Monty in 1997, but he hasn’t exactly managed to follow it up with any other successful movies. Indeed his most recent credits are directing episodes of the TV series Rev. However now Deadline reports that Cattaneo is in talks to take on the third Bridget Jones movie, after director Paul Fieg bailed on the project in October.

It also appears the film will be called Bridget Jones’ Baby, which seems to fall in line with statements made by Colin Firth in August when he said, “I can tell you that Bridget and Mark can’t have children, I think that’s the way it goes on. So then she makes the huge mistake of going back to Daniel Cleaver [Hugh Grant’s character] for long enough to get pregnant. And I think he dumps her, and she’s left stranded, and guess who comes back to rescue her?”

There’s been no confirmation this is the plot (hopefully not as it seems rather contrived), but getting Bridget to have a baby does seem the logical next step for the series. Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, and Hugh Grant and all expected for the sequel. While this installment won’t be based on a Helen Fielding book, she has been helping out with the screenplay, alongside Paul Feig and David Nicholls.

General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser

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Colin Firth Offered Oldboy Villain

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Colin Firth may not be the first person who springs to most people’s minds to play a dark villain, but it appears Spike Lee thinks differently, as Twitch reports that The King’s Speech star has been offered the bad guy role in Lee’s Oldboy remake. It isn’t known yet if the actor plans to accept the offer or not.

If he takes on the part, Firth will play Adrian, who squares off against Josh Brolin’s lead character. Chan-wook Park directed the original Oldboy, a South Korean thriller which followed a man seeking revenge against those who kept him in confinement for over 15 years.

Back in September it was revealed that Rooney Mara is the front runner for Oldboy’s female lead, but there’s been no news about her involvement since then. There’s also still the possibility Christian Bale will be in the movie, but he’s apparently not making a decision on which project to take on next until after he wraps production on The Dark Knight Rises. It isn’t known when production will begin on Oldboy.

General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser

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