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

I Am Michael (DVD Review) – James Franco goes ex-gay in a true-life story

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Michael Glatze (James Franco) is a gay man who really wants to help people. Initially working for XY Magazine before increasingly becoming an activist and launching YGA (Young Gay Americans), he becomes a prominent figure advancing the gay cause. However, Michael still feels something is missing. That’s despite having a loving boyfriend, Bennett (Zachary Quinto), and the sometime addition of a third into the relationship, Tyler (Charlie Carver).

After a health scare where he’s convinced he has the disease that caused his father to drop down dead, Michael increasingly turns to religion. What initially seems like an attempt to find meaning and reassurance that death is not the end, takes an unexpected turn when Michael leaves Bennett and publicly announces that he no longer identifies as gay. This causes a bit of a sensation, but Michael is determined he must live his own ‘truth’. That includes his new belief that homosexuality leads people away from being their ‘true selves’, which is the only way to find God. Eventually that takes him into a relationship with a woman. [Read more…]

I Am Michael Trailer – James Franco & Zachary Quinto star in the long-delayed ex-gay drama

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It’s almost two years since I Am Michael premiered at the Sundance Film Festival – enough time for director Justin Kelly and producer/star James Franco to have made and released another movie, King Cobra. However, it’s only now that the movie is coming to VoD and a few cinemas in the US in January.

Even the promised threeway between Franco, Zachary Quinto and Charlie Carver couldn’t get it released sooner.

Adapted from Benoit Denizet-Lewis’ New York Times Magazine article ‘My Ex-Gay Friend, I Am Michael tells the real-life story of Michael Glatze (Franco), formerly a leading US journalist for prominent gay magazine XY, and also an activist working for LGBT rights. After a profound and life-changing epiphany, Glatze gradually renounced his homosexuality and turned to Christian ministry, becoming outspokenly opposed to queer lifestyles.

Zachary Quinto plays his ex-boyfriend, Bennett, with Emma Roberts, Daryl Hannah and Charlie Carver also starring.

The film got a rather mixed reaction at cinemas, which perhaps isn’t surprising for a movie that takes on the difficult subject of ex-gay ministry, and makes its ‘hero’ a man who went from gay to outspoken homophobe, and who to this day is married to a woman.

Finally a trailer has been released. Take a look below. [Read more…]

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Nerve Trailer – Emma Roberts and Dave Franco get involved in a dangerous game

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nerve-slideThere’s a lot of concern about what young people get up to online, and that seems to be something Catfish’s Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost’s Nerve, about an online game of truth or dare. However, as it’s a movie things soon get out of hand.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘Industrious high school senior, Vee Delmonico [Emma Roberts], has had it with living life on the sidelines. When pressured by friends to join the popular online game Nerve, Vee decides to sign up for just one dare in what seems like harmless fun. But as she finds herself caught up in the thrill of the adrenaline-fueled competition partnered with a mysterious stranger [Dave Franco], the game begins to take a sinister turn with increasingly dangerous acts, leading her into a high stakes finale that will determine her entire future.’

And as you can from the pic above, Dave Franco (and his big nipples) have certainly been working out!

Take a look at the trailer below. The film is out in the US in July. [Read more…]

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I Am Michael (BFI Flare Opening Night Film Review)

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Chosen as the Opening Night Gala film for this year’s BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival, this is an angry-making film. It’s supposed to be as it’s probably the first Going In movie, in that it’s a reversed Coming Out tale: I am Michael tells the story of how Michael Glatze went from out gay activist and editor of San Fransisco-based gay magazine XY to a straight, married Pastor in Wyoming.

The film opens with James Franco as Michael and Zachary Quinto as his loving-yet-bland boyfriend Bennet. Apparently they’re happily in love in San Francisco, both running a gay magazine and helping gay youth in 2001. We watch as Bennett and Michael go from being happy together to being happy in a three-way relationship with Tyler (played by the ab-tastic Charlie Carver). At least, we assume they’re happy together – at no point does anyone say “I am happy being gay with you”, which is about the level of some of the exposition this script has in places. Michael is moody. Bennett is bland. Tyler is pretty. That’s about it. [Read more…]

New Pics Of Zachary Quinto & James Franco In The Gay-Themed Michael Arrive

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michael-pic1A couple of weeks ago the very first picture from Michael arrived, and now a few more pics of Zachary Quinto, Emma Roberts and James Franco in the gay-themed movie have arrived, which you can take a look at above and below.

Based on a true story, in Michael Franco play Michael Glatze, who went from being a prominent gay rights advocate to becoming one of the poster-boys for the ex-gay movement when he found God, renounced his homosexuality and married a woman, after a health scare made him reassess his life. Quinto plays Glatze’s onetime boyfriend, with Emma Roberts, Darryl Hannah and Charlie Carver also starring.

The film may be changing its title to I Am Michael, as that IMDB listing has recently been changed to suggest that alteration.

Expect it in cinemas sometime next year. (Pics via Attitude)

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Zachary Quinto & Chris Zylka Will Be James Franco’s Former Lovers In Ex-Gay Activist Movie

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zachary-quintoBack in April we reported that James Franco was once more showing off his interest in all things gay by signing up to star in a movie about Michael Glatze, who went from being an outspoken LGBT advocate to an ex-gay activist.

Now he’s got some company in the film – which is going by the simple title Michael – as Variety reports that Zachary Quinto and Chris Zyka have signed up to play two of Glatze’s former lovers, while Emma Roberts will be his girlfriend.

Glatze started out as a young gay man who was passionate about helping LGBT youth, including marching in gay rights rallies and urging young people to celebrate their non-traditional sexualities. He also launched the magazine Young Gay America after working at XY, becoming a leading voice in the gay rights fight.

However in 2004 he had a health scare involving a possible heart defect, which caused him to turn to conservative Christianity. Shortly afterwards he completely renounced everything he had previously stood for and said that he was now ‘ex-gay’. The 38-year-old is currently married to a woman.

Director Justin Kelly comments, “This isn’t just a story about an ‘ex-gay’. It’s actually a very relatable story about the power of belief and the desire to belong.”

Benoit Denizet-Lewis, who wrote the New York Times Magazine article the film is based on adds, “I’m excited that everyone involved in this project is intent on telling a story that captures the full breadth of Michael’s unusual life, from the inspiring gay leader I knew when I was young to the Christian pastor he is today.”

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Palo Alto Trailer – James Franco stars in a film adapted from his own book

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James Franco is well known as an actor, and in recent years he’s got a growing reputation as a director. However fewer people realise he’s also a published author. Now his 2010 book Palo Alto: Stories is getting a movie adaptation.

Franco’s book is a series tales loosely based on his own childhood, as well as suggestions people sent to him. That episodic narrative remains in the film, with the film tied together by Franco and Emma Roberts as a soccer coach and student embarking of a forbidden relationship.

It’s a bit of a Hollywood in-fest as along with Franco and Emma (nieve of Julia Roberts), it’s the film debut of Jack Kilmer (son of Val Kilmer, who also stars) and of writer/director Gia Coppola (who’s the granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola).

The film’s due out in the US in August. [Read more…]

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We’re the Millers 2 Gets A Writer, With Jason Sudeikis & Jennifer Aniston Expected To Return

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were-the-millers-preview-pic2After We’re The Millers grossed $269 million around the world you might have expected a sequel to start moving forward in earnest before now. However it’s only now that a writer has been hired to pen a follow-up, with Adam Sztykiel (Due Date) hired to pen the script, according to THR.

The first film followed the misadventures of a drug dealer who realises the only way to get back from Mexico to the US with an RV full of marijuana is to recruit a fake family to help him. However, getting across the border turns out to be the least of their problems. Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Emma Roberts, Ed Helms and Will Poulter are all expected to return for the sequel, although not all the deals are in place yet (getting them all lined up appears to be why it’s taken a while to get a sequel moving).

No director is currently attached, although is seems there’s a good chance Rawson Marshall Thurber will be back, as long as the other projects he’s signed up for don’t conflict.

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We’re The Millers – Extended Cut (DVD)

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I’m not sure when it was that Hollywood decided that it would be best if all comedies were about people who are essentially assholes, but it certainly seems to be the trend. Often it completely ruins the film as it’s difficult to care about unpleasant people being horrible to one another, even if by the end they learn not to be such big assholes. At the beginning of We’re The Millers I was worried that would be the problem here, but almost to my surprise it began to win me over. [Read more…]

We’re The Millers Red Band Trailer – Jennifer Aniston is Jason Sudeikis’ fake wife

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Jennifer Aniston obviously didn’t have enough of fake relationships in Just Go With It, as she’s having another one in We’re The Millers. Now a red band trailer for the movie has arrived, featuring Aniston alongside Jason Sudekis, Emma Roberts and young British actor Will Poulter.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘David is a small-time pot dealer whose clientele includes chefs and soccer moms, but no kids—after all, he has his scruples.  So what could go wrong?  Plenty.  Having been jumped by a trio of gutter punks who steal his stash and his cash, they leave him in major debt to a drug lord. In order to wipe the slate clean, David must now become a big-time drug smuggler by bringing Brad’s latest shipment in from Mexico.  Twisting the arms of his neighbours including a cynical stripper, a wannabe customer and a tatted-and-pierced streetwise teen, he devises a fool proof plan.  One fake wife, two pretend kids and a huge, shiny campervan later, the “Millers” are on a roadtrip that is sure to end with a bang.’

It hits UK cinemas August 23rd. [Read more…]

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