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

Nicolas Winding Refn To Helm The Equalizer

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A film version of the 80s TV series The Equalizer has been in the works for years, with various people coming and going from the movie, but it’s never actually made it to a film set. Now a bit more momentum has built up behind it with the news, via Variety, that Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn is in talks to helm for Sony Pictures.

Denzel Washington is still attached to star in the film, based on The Equalizer TV series that debuted back in 1985. It starred Edward Woodward as a former spy who decides to help those in need, free of charge. The feature version will alter the premise slightly, with Washington as a lone recluse, determined to stop helpless people from being victimised.

Back in 2010, Oscar winner Paul Haggis was writing the screenplay, but it seems he is no longer involved. Instead Refn will be working from a draft by Richard Wenk (The Expendables 2). Shooting should begin in the spring of 2013.

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Ryan Gosling’s Face Gets Bashed In (But Luckily Only In A Promo Image)

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Beating Ryan Gosling’s pretty face to a pulp would essentially be an act of blasphemy, but he’s not looking too pretty in this promo image from Only God Forgives. It suggests that after the blood-soaked Drive, Gosling and director Nicolas Winding Refn aren’t going for sugar plums and fairies in their latest collaboration.

The film stars Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas, with word coming through that it’s likely to be finished by December, ready for release at some point next year.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘Julian (Gosling) lives in exile in Bangkok where he runs a Thai boxing club as a front for the family’s drugs smuggling operation. When Julian’s brother Billy is killed their mother, Jenna (Scott Thomas), arrives in the city. She wants revenge and forces Julian to find the killer. Julian’s contacts in the criminal underworld lead him directly to The Angel of Vengeance, a retired police officer who knows everything and who is both Judge and Punisher. Jenna demands that Julian kill The Angel of Vengeance, an act that will cost him dearly.’

I’m not sure how Gosling does it, but he’s one of the few people who can make being bloodied and half-blinded look sexy. If it’s half as good as Drive we’re in for a treat.

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Nicolas Winding Refn May Helm Button Man: The Killing Game

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Many have been hoping that Nicolas Winding Refn would finally get his long-gestating adaptation of Logan’s Run off the ground, but it appears that may have to wait a while, as he’s now signed on the adapt the graphic novel Button Man: The Killing Game for DreamWorks, according to Deadline.

The plot is a little like a grown-up Hunger Games, a tiny bit Red, a touch Running Man and a large splash of The Most Dangerous Game. The story centres on Harry Exton, a hired gun who agrees to participate in a game set up by a bunch of millionaires in which he is forced to face off against some of the world’s most dangerous killers in a fight to the death. When Exton grows tired of the game, he realises that the only way to stop it is to go after the millionaires directly.

It’d be an interesting project for Refn, although quite whether he’ll be allowed to keep the extreme violence of the likes of Drive and Valhalla Rising is yyet to be seen. There’s no news on when it might be ready to shoot.

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Watch The First Seven Minutes Of Drive

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Earlier this week we gave Drive four stars in our review of the DVD release. It more than deserved it as it’s a great movie, managing to be both quiet and contemplative, and full of moments of shocking action and violence. Now the first seven minutes of the Ryan Gosling film have been released online, so everyone can get a taste of Nicolas Winding Refn’s movie. We’ve embedded it here, so take a look and then hurry off and get yourself a copy of the DVD or Blu-ray.

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Drive (DVD)

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The release date of Drive deliberately seems to have set in the hope the movie would pick up a few Oscar nominations. While it only managed one – for Sound Editing – the film might well have been helped by the outrage many have expressed about the Academy pretty much ignoring it.

Ryan Gosling plays a Hollywood stunt driver, mechanic and getaway driver who strikes up a friendship/chaste romance with a young mother called Irene (Carey Mulligan), whose husband is in prison. When the hubby is released from jail, the driver agrees to help him with a robbery, in the hope this will ensure Irene and her son remain safe. However when things go wrong, it sets off an increasingly violent chain of events, with the driver’s life and that of everyone around him at threat from gangland heavies, including the brutal Nino (Ron Perlman) and gangster turned movie producer Bernie (Albert Brooks) [Read more…]