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

NEWS

All the news from film and the world of the gays

McG To Produce & Possibly Direct School of Fear

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McG has been pretty busy signing up to various projects recently, as he’s about to shoot Three Days To Kill, and has slotted in Magic Castle after that. Now he’s putting another one into development, as Variety reports he’s signed to produce and possibly direct an adaptation of School of Fear, based on Gitty Danveshari’s children’s book series.

The novels follows four young children who all suffer from different phobias. They are sent to a secretive school that will help them overcome their fears, if they can survive the treacherous final test.

A film version has previously under development through producer Graham King but he let them lapse and now Red Crown Productions and McG’s Wonderland company have teamed up to take it on. Daniel Mackey is writing the adapted screenplay. He previously wrote for the web series Aim High, which McG produced.

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Jared Leto Cross Dresses In First Dallas Buyer’s Club Set Photos

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A couple of weeks ago it was revealed that Jared Leto was set to play a flamboyant, cross-dressing gay character in The Dallas Buyer’s Club. Now the movie has started shooting and Just Jared has gotten hold of the first shots from the set, showing Leto in character, along with a very skinny Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner.

I can’t say it’s Jared’s best look ever, but it certainly shows off his cheekbones and he’s oddly reminiscent of Cillian Murphy in Breakfast On Pluto (although that may just be because of the furry jacket).

The movie is about Ron Woodruff (McConaughey), a man who contracts AIDS in 1986. After becoming frustrated with the lack of medical options in the US, due to the fact drugs have to be extensively tested by the FDA before they become available to patients, he begins smuggling alternative drugs into the country from Mexico. Jared Leto will portray Rayon, another AIDS patient Woodruff befriends at the hospital.

It’s also been revealed via Variety that that the wonderful Steve Zahn and Dallas Roberts have joined the cast as it’s started shooting. The Grey’s Roberts will play Woodruff’s defence attorney David Wayne, who fought for the FDA to allow AIDS patients to get potentially life-saving drugs. Zahn is set to be a Dallas policeman who turns a blind eye to Woodruff’s smuggling, as he sympathises with his predicament after having dealt with his father’s Alzheimer’s.

Jean-Marc Vallée is directing from a screenplay by Melisa Wallack and Craig Borten. Click on the pics below for a better look at McConaughey, Garner and Leto, or head over to Just Jared for a few more images.

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Beautiful Thing Goes Back To The Stage For Its 20th Anniversary

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The 1996 movie Beautiful Thing is many people’s favourite gay-themed film – and with good reason – but of course it started off life as a play by Jonathan Harvey, which premiered in 1993 at the Bush Theatre, London, directed by Hettie MacDonald. It even starred Philip Glenister and a very young Johnny Lee Miller. The play then went to the Donmar Warehouse, and finally the Duke of York’s Theatre in the West End (where Rhys Ifans joined the cast).

That means 2013 marks the 20th Anniversary and so a new UK tour of the play is being planned, with Coronation Street and Scott & Bailey actress Suranne Jones set to star, with Nikolai Foster directing. The tour kicks off at the Arts Theatre in London from April 13th-May 23th, before heading for Liverpool, Leeds and Brighton.

Beautiful Thing is set on the Thamesmead Estate in London, and follows the burgeoning relationship between two teenage boys as they deal with emerging gay identity against the working class backdrop of South London housing estate life. Although that might sound rather depressing, it’s renowned for its comedy and romantic tone, which not ignoring the difficulties young people face. Amazingly Harvey wrote the play when he was only 24. He’s since created the sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme and writes for Coronation Street.

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Ian McKellen Backs Stonewall’s New Anti-Gay Bullying Video

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Anti-gay bullying has become an ever more hot button, particularly in the States following a spate of suicide by queer teens (and those targeted by gay taunts). However it’s a major issue in the UK too, and now Stonewall has released a new video aimed at battling the problems gay, trans and other teens face in schools.

It reveals worrying statistics such as that over half of LGBT students have faced bullying at school, 56% have deliberately harmed themselves and that a quarter have contemplated suicide (the stats comes from the University of Cambridge for Stonewall’s School Report 2012). To help spread the message Stonewall recruited Ian McKellen to narrate the video, bringing some extra gravitas to a very important subject. Along with McKellen’s voice, several teens talk about their experiences in school as well as how they’ve been helped by Stonewall’s School Champions program, which helps teachers support gay pupils.

McKellen is currently visiting School Champions across Britain with Stonewall, as part of the program that brings prominent gay people to schools across the UK. McKellen commented, “Nothing in life is more important to me than helping gay young people realise there are better days ahead of them. I’m proud that Stonewall – which I helped create to tackle legalised homophobia – is now leading the fight in those British schools where homophobic bullying ruins far too many young people’s lives. It’s a privilege to play a small part in bringing it to an end.”

The video was was produced by digital agency Feref at Lillian Baylis Technology School in Vauxhall, London. For more information about Stonewall’s campaign visit www.stonewall.org.uk/antibullying

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Matt Riddlehoover & Scenes From a Gay Marriage’s Jared Allman Re-team For New Film

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Director/actor Matt Riddlehoover is a busy man. His film Scenes From A Gay Marriage hits DVD and VOD in the US on November 27th, he’s getting Return To Babylon ready for audiences, and he has an as-yet-untitled movie in the works, which has María Conchita Alonso, Charlie David, Justin Mikita, Jonathan D. Lovitz, Enrique Sapene, and Josey Greenwell set to star.

That would be enough for most people, but not for Riddlehoover, who has announced that he’s reteaming with actor Jared Allman – who starred in Scenes From A Gay Marriage and is also set for the untitled movie that’s mentioned above – for another LGBT-themed feature-length comedy, which is due to start shooting next month in LA.

The film will follow the intertwining stories of various visitors and residents of West Hollywood and the romances, adventures and predicaments they get into. The script plays off of the fact that the majority of the city’s population is made up of gay or bisexual men, and that it is also one of the only places in the US where it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender identity. In one story, Amy Kelly (All About Walken: The Impersonators of Christopher Walken) will star as a vacationing housewife who wakes up to find she has a penis. In another story, Allman will be featured as a transvestite looking for love (but if the picture above is anything to go by – Allman is on the left – he’ll need to do some chest shaving before cameras roll).

No title for the film has been revealed yet.

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New Beautiful Creatures Trailer – Alice Englert heads for Southern gothic fantasy

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It’s getting a bit witchy in the Deep South in Beautiful Creatures, with a young woman (Alice Englert) knowing that she’s a ‘caster’ and that on her 18th birthday she’ll be claimed for either the powers of dark or light. Based on Kami Garcia’s novel.

Beautiful Creatures is about two star-crossed teenage lovers: Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich), a local boy, and a mysterious new girl, Lena (Alice Englert), who uncover dark secrets about their respective families, their history and their town, which could result in a power shift towards the forces of darkness. Beautiful Creatures is the first of a five book series, so the Warner Bros. will be hoping the movie is a success so they can line up some sequels.

The cast also includes Emma Thompson, Emmy Rossum, Jeremy Irons and Viola Davis. It hits cinemas on February 13th 2013. It certainly looks like it could be pretty good, with a strong cast who can sell the more far-fetched aspects of the plot.

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Admission Trailer – Tina Fey jockeys for position at Princeton University

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You gotta love Tina Fey, and while she hasn’t had a huge amount of success with movies she’s starred in (Baby Mama in particular should be struck off her CV), she’ll be hoping for more success with Admission. In the film she is Portia Nathan, the assistant admissions officer at the Princeton University, who’s involved with her colleague Mark (Michael Sheen). An opportunity arises when she discovers that her boss (Wallace Shawn) is retiring. However if she wants his jobs she’s have to compete with friend/colleague Corinne (Gloria Reuben).

However her life goes in an unexpected direction when she heads for as experimental New Hampshire school to evaluate students who are applying to Princeton. She fins a connection with the school’s co-founder, John Halsey (Paul Rudd), and he introduces her to precocious college applicant Jeremiah (Nat Wolff), who could be the son she gave up when she was younger.

Based on Jean Hanff Korelitz’s 2009 novel, Admission will be released sometime next year.

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Katherine Heigl, Will Arnett & Brendan Fraser Take On The Nut Job

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Animation is such a long and expensive process it’s normally only the big boys such as Disney and Pixar who can take on feature-length projects, but a few others do manage to get made, and that’s just what Peter Lepeniotis is doing with The Nut Job.

And to try and ensure him movie gets a decent chance, he’s recruited a fine voice cast for the film, with Deadline reporting that Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, Brendan Fraser, Stephen Lang, Sarah Gadon and Jeff Dunham have all signed up. The film is based on Lepeniotis’ 2005 short film Surly Squirrel, and is set in the 1950s in a place called Oakton. At the centre of it is a squirrel named Surly and a rat named Buddy who try to work out plans to rob a nut store.

Lepeniotis is a veteran of both Pixar and ILM and worked on movies such as Toy Story 2, Casper, and Fantasia/2000, so he knows what he’s doing, but for this one he’s teamed up with Canada-based animation company ToonBox Entertainment, along with Korea’s Redrover Co, Ltd.

You can watch the original short below.

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Kyra Sedgwick & Kelsey Grammer Will Reach Me

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John Herzfeld (2 Days In The Valley, 15 Minutes) has certainly pulled together a great cast for Reach Me, with the production company behind the film announcing that Kyra Sedgwick, Kelsey Grammer, and Terry Crews are amongst new additions to an ensemble that also includes Tom Berenger, Kevin Connolly, Thomas Jane, Sylvester Stallone, Nelly, Danny Aiello, David O’Hara, Omari Hardwick, Lauren Cohan, Elizabeth Henstridge, Cary Elwes, and Ryan Kwanten.

Reach Me is described as an uplifting ensemble comedy/drama about a dozen fractured characters whose lives intertwine and eventually collide as a result of a self-published motivational book and its anonymous author. The movie is already shooting, and has been for the last couple of weeks.

Herzfeld commented, “Reach Me has been my passion project for 12 years – everything I have to say as a filmmaker and a man is packed in this story of redemption and hope, and I am lucky and thrilled to be working with a phenomenally talented cast that are realizing my dream.”

Damn, I hope it’s good or that man is going to be crushed.

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Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes Preview Pic Online

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First a proviso, while it’s reported that this image first appeared on the official Apes Will Rise Facebook page, it’s since been removed, so it may turn out this is either a hoax or unnaproved, but hey, it’s fun.

The pics above becomes ‘Evolution becomes revolution’ and suggest the Apes aren’t going to be content living in the woods, and they’re getting themselves some firearms to help protect themselves from the humans who presumably have a problem with a bunch of super-intelligent simians wandering around, especially as they’re learning to talk.

It’s still a while until the film will arrive, as it’s due for release May 23, 2014. Last month Let Me In director Matt Reeves signed on to take over directing duties for Rupert Wyatt, who backed out due to scheduling issues. Mark Bomback is currently rewriting the original script by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver.

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