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

Jessie Usher To Lead Independence Day Sequel, With Liam Hemsworth & Jeff Goldblum Confirmed To Co-Star

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jessie-usherWith a confirmed 2016 release date and Fox planning to shoot in a few months time, the sequel to Independence Day needs to firm up its cast pretty quickly, and it looks like it’s doing just that, as on his Facebook page director Roland Emmerich has revealed Jessie User will take the lead role.

Usher isn’t a particularly well known name, but he’s appeared in Survivor’s Remorse and When The Game Stands Tall, among other roles.

In the Independence Day sequel he’ll play the son of Will Smith’s character from the first movie, who’s now all grown and ready to take on the alien threat himself.

Emmerich also confirmed that Liam Hemsworth, who was recently reported to be in talks for the film, will indeed be part of the cast, and that Jeff Goldblum is set to return for the follow up.

The movie is due out June 24th, 2016.

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Liam Hemsworth Wanted For Independence Day Sequel

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liam-hemsworthAfter a very, very long time in development, the planned sequel to Independence Day is creeping towards production, and as proof they really intend to go ahead this time, The Wrap reports that Liam Hemsworth has been offered a major role in the movie.

The previously rumoured Michael B. Jordan is also still in the mix (while there’s been no confirmation, the speculation is that he’ll play the son of Will Smith’s character from the first film). Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman are due to return for the film, which will shoot this year for release June 24, 2016.

There are no details on the plot, but it’s safe to say mankind will once more be threatened by aliens intent on humanity’s destruction. Emmerich has previously said, “The humans knew that one day the aliens would come back. And they know that the only way you can really travel in space is through wormholes. So for the aliens, it could take two or three weeks, but for us that’s 20 or 25 years….It’s a changed world. It’s like parallel history. [Humans] have harnessed all this alien technology. We don’t know how to duplicate it because it’s organically-grown technology, but we know how to take an antigravity device and put it in a human airplane.”

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Resurrection’s Matt Craven Heads To Roland Emmerich’s Gay Right Drama Stonewall

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Matt-CravenFilming has now begun on Roland Emmerich’s gay rights drama Stonewall, but according to Deadline he’s still adding to the cast with the news that Resurrection and Justified’s Matt Craven has signed on.

Jeremy Irvine, Caleb Landry Jones, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Ron Perlman and Joey King star in the movie, which centre around Irvine’s Danny, a young man whose political awakening happens against the backdrop of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, which have since become a touchstone for the gay rights struggle. Caleb Landry Jones will play an eccentric gay street hustler named Orphan Annie who at first resists then warms up to Danny and later participates in the Stonewall uprising.

Craven is gonna play a rather conflicted, as he’s Deputy Seymour Pine, the leader of the police force that raided the Stonewall Inn sparking the riots. He sympathises with the gay community but must carry out his duties, which in the 60s included arresting people just for being gay.

The film is currently shooting in Toronto, ahead of a release next year.

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Roland Emmerich Talks Recreating NYC’s Christopher Street For Gay Rights Drama Stonewall

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roland-emmerich-stonewallYesterday the full cast was announced for Roland Emmerich‘s Stonewall as the movie started shooting. To coincide with that the director has been talking to EW about the difficulties of recreating the era that kicked off the gay rights fight.

“Nothing in New York looks like the ’60s anymore,” he says. “So we actually ended up with quite a big undertaking. We actually built part of Christopher Street and of the side of the Stonewall, just to be correct and how it really looked. Secondly, we do a lot of blue-screen. The movie ends with the first gay march, the gay liberation march in 1970, and that’s not possible anymore. So we do the whole scene with special effects, like blue-screen. We shot [that] in modern New York and turn it into 1969.”

So while it may be lower budget than Emmerich usual fare such as 2012 and Independence Day, it still sounds like he’s making plenty of use of VFX with the $20 million he does have to spend.

He also wants to point out that it is a fictionalised account of the events, “We do have some historic characters [in the movie], but the interesting thing about Stonewall is that actually the people we know about that lived during that riot, most of them are dead because they died in the AIDS crisis. Most of these kids, nobody knows about them much. We only know from witnesses, guys who fought in, in some respect, what is the day of revolution.”

As for why he decided to make the movie, “I was always naturally interested in the subject matter. Then, maybe two or three years ago, a couple of friends and I were kind of talking about marriage equality, and one of them said to me, ‘You know, Roland, you should make a gay movie.’ And I’m saying, ‘Well, nobody wants to see a gay movie from me.’ And then I kind of said, ‘Well, if it’s an important subject matter, then maybe they will.’ At the same time, I was involved with the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center, and they told me that 40 percent of all homeless youth are gay, which is a disproportionate amount. That was like the bridge to today. It’s still going on. [Gay] kids get thrown out of their homes and become homeless, and [my movie] is like a story of one of these kids who gets involved in the whole Stonewall riots, because the riots were actually kind of done by the kids. A lot of them were homeless. They were hustlers, kids who had nothing to lose.”

, Caleb Landry Jones, , , are all set to star in the movie, which should be out next year.

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Jonathan Rhys Meyers & Ron Perlman Join Roland Emmerich’s Gay Rights Drama, Stonewall

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jonathan-rhys-meyersA couple of months ago Roland Emmerich promised he’d start shooting his gay rights movie Stonewall soon. Now he’s making good on that, as filming is about to kick off and more cast members have been announced.

Jeremy Irvine and Caleb Landry Jones are already onboard, and now Variety reports they’ve been joined by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Ron Perlman and Joey King. Jonny Beauchamp, Karl Glusman, Vlademir Alexis, and Alexandre Nachi will also star.

The film will centre around Irvine’s Danny, a young man whose political awakening happens against the backdrop of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, which have since become a touchstone for the gay rights struggle. Caleb Landry Jones will play an eccentric gay street hustler named Orphan Annie who at first resists then warms up to Danny and later participates in the Stonewall uprising.

It’s not clear who the other actors will play. Shooting is starting now in New York.

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Roland Emmerich To Direct New Stargate Trilogy

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stargate-pic1Roland Emmerich is going to spend the next few years revisiting his own past, as he’s already planning sequels to Independence Day, and now it’s been revealed he’s teaming with MGM and Warner Bros. to launch a new feature film trilogy that reimagines his 1994 film Stargate.

There’s not too much info on how it will be reimagined, but Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin commented, “The Stargate universe is one that we missed terribly, and we cannot wait to get going on imagining new adventures and situations for the trilogy. This story is very close to our hearts, and getting the chance to revisit this world is in many ways like a long lost child that has found its way back home.”

It’s not surprising Stargate is getting a remake, but it is a shock that Emmerich will direct it. However it’s not clear when he will get around to it, as the press release confirmed that, ‘He is also in pre-production on ID Forever – Part 1 and ID Forever – Part 2, back-to-back sequels to his hit film, Independence Day.’ That’s gonna take up a lot of his time.

He’s also currently shooting Stonewall, a drama about a young man’s political awakening amid the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York, which sparked a fight for equality and paved the way for the modern gay rights movement.

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Director Roland Emmerich Plans Historical Adventure Maya Lord

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roland-emmerich-slideRoland Emmerich is a busy man. He’s shooting his gay rights drama Stonewall this Spring, and he’s also gearing up to finally make the long-awaited Independence Day 2, which is expected to come directly after Stonewall.

However he’s already looking past that as Deadline reports that he has snapped up the screen rights to John Coe Robbins’ historical novel, Maya Lord.

The book is based on the true story of Gonzalo Guerrero, who in 1511 got shipwrecked during a storm and ended up on an uncharted shore in the New World. He and his crew members were then enslaved by a Mayan tribe. Soon realising there was little hope of escape (where were they going to go?), Guerrero decided to try to find ways to fit in with and advance in their society.

The Spaniard eventually became one of the tribe’s top warlords, which pitted his against his former countrymen when Cortes and other Spanish conquistadors arrived. Guerrero eventually married the daughter of a Mayan chief and is regarded as the father of the first Mestizo family, a term given to individuals of European and Native American descent.

Emmerich has apparently fascinated by the story for several years, although it won’t be his next project and hopes to turn it into a movie.

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X-Men’s Caleb Landry Jones Joins Roland Emmerich’s Gay Rights Drama Stonewall

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Caleb-Landry-JonesA couple of weeks ago Roland Emmerich’s Stonewall got its first star with War Horse and Railway Man’s Jeremy Irvine signing up for the movie. Now he’s got some company as Deadline reports X-Men: First Class star Caleb Landry Jones is in talks for the film.

The film will centre around Irvine’s Danny, a young man whose political awakening happens against the backdrop of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, which have since become a touchstone for the gay rights struggle.

Jones will play, ‘an eccentric gay street hustler named Orphan Annie who at first resists then warms up to Danny and later participates in the Stonewall uprising’.

Emmerich revealed a few weeks ago that he intends to start production on the movie in the next couple of months.

As well as First Class, Caleb Landry Jones has appeared in Antiviral, Contraband, Byzantium, No Country For Old Men and the upcoming Queen & Country.

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Jeremy Irvine Will Have A Gay Rights Struggle In Stonewall For Roland Emmerich

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Jeremy-IrvineA few days ago Roland Emmerich announced that he was planning to shoot his gay rights drama, Stonewall, this Spring. But at the time we had no idea who would star.

Now Deadline reports that War Horse and Great Expectations star Jeremy Irvine has landed the lead role in the movie.

While the movie is set during the run up to the 1969 Stonewall Riots, it’s not a simple retelling of what happened during June 1969, as Jon Robin Bates’s script is a larger story of how modern gay rights activism emerged and how that boiled over onto the streets at New York’s Stonewall Inn. He’s previously described it as being, “About these crazy kids in New York, and a country bumpkin who gets into their gang, and at the end they start this riot and change the world.”

Irvine will play a young man whose political awakening happens against the backdrop of the riots which have since become a touchstone for the gay rights struggle.

In the last couple of years Irvine has gathered many fans who like both his talent and his face, and plenty of those will be very happy at the prospect of him playing a gay character – we’ll certainly be first in line when the movie comes out.

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Roland Emmerich To Shoot His Birth Of Gay Rights Stonewall Movie This Spring

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roland-emmerich-slideLast year Independence Day and 2012 director Roland Emmerich announced he was stepping away from disaster epics to make something more personal – an independent film about the Stonewall riots.

However even with a director who’s had a lot of success, it’s a big difference between them saying they want to make a smaller project that’s personal to them and actually getting the backing and support to do it. But it seems in this case it’s all panned out, as on his Facebook page he’s announced Stonewall will shoot this spring.

He says, ‘I wanted you to be the first to know that I will begin shooting “STONEWALL” this Spring.

‘For those of you who aren’t aware, the legendary Stonewall Inn is the birthplace of the modern Gay Rights movement. I plan to keep you updated along the way with casting information and lots of pictures and behind-the-scenes videos.

‘Next up: Independence Day Forever!

‘Stonewall will be produced by Michael Fossat, Marc Frydman and Roland Emmerich. Executive Producers, Kirstin Winker and Adam Press. Line Producer, Carsten Lorenz. Written by Jon Robin Baitz. Cinematographer, Markus Förderer. You can read more about the Stonewall Riots here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots You can like the page here: Stonewall‘

There have been suggestion recently that it’s not a simple retelling of the 1969 riots, but that Jon Robin Bates’s script is a larger story of how modern gay rights activism emerged and how how that boiled over onto the streets at New York’s Stonewall Inn. He’s previously described it as being, “About these crazy kids in New York, and a country bumpkin who gets into their gang, and at the end they start this riot and change the world.”

He added at thetom, “I’ve got more and more involved in the Gay & Lesbian Centre in Los Angeles, and I learned that 40% of homeless kids are gay. So things haven’t changed very much. But I put this together and said, I should make a movie about that, so it starts with a kid who gets thrown out of his home and ends up on the streets of the village, and becomes friends with all these kids. In a weird way, it shows that it’s still something that happens today.

“I read a lot about it and was so surprised. It was the first time that gay people had shown the police that they should take them serious. And when the riot police came – this has always been fascinating for me – these kids formed a chorus line and sang ‘We are the village girls, we wear our hair in curls!’ It was such a cool thing.”

roland-emmerich-at-stonewall-inn

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