A couple of people have noted that in the new take on Ghostbusters, there’s the possibility that Kate McKinnon’s character, Jillian, maybe be somewhere on the LGBT spectrum. However, as nearly always with big Hollywood movies, while there are suggestions, nothing’s actually said.
It appears there might be a reason for that to do with the studio, and that the filmmakers would have really liked to have been a little more open about. The Daily Beast asked director Paul Feig straight out whether Jillian is gay, to which he answered, “What do you think?”
When the intereviewer says that they think the answer is ‘yes’, Feig reportedly silently nodded and said, “I hate to be coy about it. But when you’re dealing with the studios and that kind of thing…
“You know, Kate is who she is and I love the relationship between Kate and Melissa’s characters,” he says. “I think it’s a very interesting, close relationship. If you know Kate at all she’s this kind of pansexual beast where it’s just like everybody who’s around her falls in love with her and she’s so loving to everybody she’s around. I wanted to let that come out in this character.”
That would suggest Jillian is supposed to be LGBT, but they’re not allowed to say it.
While Star Trek Beyond is making Sulu gay, generally Hollywood is still terribly afraid of having openly LGBT major characters in its big budget movies. The fear is that inclusion will affect the box office – or indeed get the movie banned – in countries where homosexuality is still frowned up or illegal, and may well deter anti-gay elements in the US. As hundreds of millions are being spent on these films, they simply won’t take the risk.
Back in 2014, there was a bit of a furore over the fact that, despite being held up since its 1968 inception as a beacon of progressive values on things like race, Star Trek had never had an on-screen openly LGBT character (although some had appeared in books). At the time, then director of the third rebooted Star Trek movie, Roberto Orci, said he was open to the idea of being more inclusive in the film, but after that we heard nothing.
It’s the most popular short film series in the world, and now the Boys On Film collection is returning with its 15th instalment, Time & Tied. While Boys On Film has previously taken us around the world, this time it’s concentrating on gay-themed British shorts, from a night in a gay sauna turning into a fight for survival, and two men sit on a park bench speaking Polari, to a relationship becoming heated on a night out in London’s Soho streets,and sexual adventures awaiting two men in Sir John’s Trouser Bar.
After taking us into a city of talking animals with Zootopia – which recently hit a truly impressive $1bn worldwide at the box office – Disney is heading back into the world of princesses with Moana. However, rather than a chilly fantasy like Frozen, this one is set in Polynesia. The first teaser trailer has been released, with Auli’i Cravalho’s Moana, not being impressed with Dwayne Johnson’s demi-god, Maui.
One of the most interesting of Disney’s attempts to bring its animated back catalogue into the live-action arena is the upcoming Beauty & The Beast, which unlike Jungle Book, won’t just borrow the story, but will also bring the musical elements to life. Now the first teaser trailer has arrived, which concentrates on showing us the Beast castle as it atrophies due to the curse, before Emma Watson’s Belle shows up at the end.
Videogames-to-movies don’t have a great reputation, but that’s partly because the resulting film are often cheesy and have a slightly cheap, churned-out feeling. However Fox seems to be really hoping to change that with Assassin’s Creed by spending a lot of money, bringing together a great cast, a director with great dramatic credentials and ensuring the whole thing looks really good.
26-year-old Alden Ehrenreich has been the ‘next big thing’ for a while (in fact ever since he was discovered by Steven Spielberg entertaining at a bar mitzvah). However, the likes of Beautiful Creatures failed to really break him out, and while he’s gotten very close to numerous other major tentpole roles, they’ve ended up going to someone else.