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

Beauty & The Beast (IMAX Review) – Is there something gay there that wasn’t there before?

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If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. That seems to have been the watchword with Beauty & The Beast. While there has been some tinkering around the edges of the 1991 animated classic to give everyone a bit more of a backstory, and to slightly soften some of the creepier Stockholm Syndrome elements, largely this live-action version is incredibly faithful. That goes as far as parts of the film being pretty much a shot-for-shot remake.

Inevitably, this will have some crying foul, seeing this as a cynical attempt by Disney to churn out another money-grabbing live-action take on one of their best films. Well, the fact is – yes, it is. But do you know what? I don’t care. [Read more…]

Multiple Maniacs (Criterion Blu-ray Review) – John Waters’ insane early queer movie is back & as bizarre as ever

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Even 47 years on, it’s sometimes difficult to know what to write about John Water’s early work. While he later tempered some of his more depraved urges and found a wider audience with the likes of Hairspray, Serial Mom and Pecker – although all still with the unique Waters stamp – when he first started out he was blazing a trail unlike anyone else.

Multiple Maniacs was Waters’ first feature-length sound movie, made in Baltimore at the tail end of 1969 with a cast and crew composed largely of his friends. It opens with Mr. David (David Lochary) trying to entice people into a tent to see Lady Divine’s Cavalcade Of Perversions. The straight-laced punters aren’t impressed by the ‘real-life queers’, drug addicts, armpit lickers and naked pyramids they find in the tent, and are even less pleased when they discover it’s all been a ruse to kidnap, rob and possibly kill them. [Read more…]

Henry Cavill Signs Up For Mission: Impossible 6

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Mission: Impossible 6 just got a little less impossible. After all, if you’ve got a man who can fly, stop speeding bullets and have x-ray vision on your team, it makes things easier. That said, although Variety reports that Henry Cavill has signed on to star, he probably won’t be playing Superman.

Instead, he will apparently be ‘would play some sort of a right hand to the head of Cruise’s unit’. Alec Baldwin had the head role in the last film, but its not been announced whether he will return. It also leaves open the possibility that Cavill may actually turn out to be a bad guy.

Vanessa Kirby was recently announced as one of Tom Cruise’s co-stars in the movie, with the likes of Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, and Jeremy Renner also expected to return in some capacity. The movie is due to start shooting soon, for release July 2018.

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Jane Lynch Is Set To Go Womanising In NBC’s New TV Pilot, Relatively Happy

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Jane Lynch has been brilliant for years, but people only really started properly paying attention after Glee. Since that show ended, TV has been looking for the right spot for her, and now NBC is hoping they’ve found it, as Variety reports she’s been cast in the pilot for the new comedy, Relatively Happy.

It’s a bit of gender-blind casting – sort of – as the role was originally written for a man, before the producers (including Will & Grace’s Max Mutchnick) decided it would be perfect for Lynch. Thankfully though, it doesn’t appear they’re changing much, as that just as when the character was a guy, she’ll be a bit of a womaniser.

The show ‘follows adult siblings Henry (John Rudnitsky) and Heather (Genevieve Angelson) who wind up living together for the first time since they were kids, after one of them suffers a big loss. They become each other’s wingman, shoulder to cry on, best friend and punching bag as they navigate love, loss and work while helping to get each other “un-stuck.”’

Lynch will play ‘Bobbi Martin, a fast-living, Scotch-drinking, three-piece-suit–wearing, womanizing divorce attorney who is Henry’s boss, mentor and “father” figure’.

Sitcom directing legend James Burrows will helm the pilot, with the show angling to premiere this autumn.

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The Matrix Is Getting ‘Rebooted’ At Warner Bros., But Without the Wachowskis

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To be honest, I’m surprised this hasn’t happened before. While The Reloaded and Revolutions weren’t the box office behemoths Warner Bros. had hoped, they still showed that there were plenty of people interested in that world. Now THR has heard that a Matrix ‘reboot’ is in the early stages.

They suggest that Zak Penn in talks to write a treatment, with the studio potentially looking at Michael B. Jordan to star. At the moment though, Lana and Lilly Wachowski aren’t involved, but that may change. Warner is apparently hoping to get their blessing at the very least, as without it they fear a backlash from fans.

At the moment though this doesn’t appear to be a reboot in the sense that it will retell the story of Neo. Instead, as Arrival screenwriter Eric Heisserer put it on Twitter, it appears the studio is hoping to ‘Rogue One’ the franchise, telling an alternative tale set in the same universe.

There is also the potential for the return of Keanu Reeves, although he would want the Wachowskis fully involved, as he recently told Yahoo! Movies, that for him to get back into The Matrix world, “They would have to write it and direct it. And then we’d see what the story is, but yeah, I dunno, that’d be weird, but why not?”

At the moment though, it’s too early to say what will happen.

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Beauty & The Beast Release Delayed Indefinitely In Malaysia, Despite Cutting ‘Gay moment’

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When people wonder why Hollywood is so reticent about putting LGBT characters in their big releases, the fuss over some minor gay content in Disney’s Beauty & The Beast is good evidence of why studio execs shy away from it. The fear is that there will a backlash from the religious right and various countries around the world either banning the film or making it difficult for people to see. As a result, the worry that it will lower the box office means LGBT characters are still a major rarity in big Hollywood films.

The latest country where Beauty & The Beast is causing a stir is Malaysia, where the censorship board cut the ‘gay moment’ involving the character LeFou, and gave the movie a ‘PG-13’ style rating. “We have approved it but there is a minor cut involving a gay moment. It is only one short scene but it is inappropriate because many children will be watching this movie,” Abdul Hamid, chairman of Malaysia’s Film Censorship Board, told the Associated Press

However, the film was still due to be released at the end of this week. Now though, it has disappeared off the schedules.

It appears the decision was made by Disney, which has said the release of the movie in the country is now the subject of ‘internal review’. However, few other details have been released about why the decision was made. Some have suggested that despite the censorship, Disney may have known of plans for protests against the movie, or had even received threats, although it appears that is purely speculation. Gay sex is still illegal in Malaysia and discrimination is pervasive, with one of the lowest levels of acceptance of homosexuality by society in Asia, and in recent years the situation has arguably gotten worse.

Elsewhere, Beauty & The Beast met calls to be banned in Russia and ended up with an adults only rating, while some on the religious right in the US have been protesting the movie over the ‘gay moment’. Even so, it’s still expected that the movie will gross over $200 million worldwide this weekend, once it starts rolling out on Thursday. If the film can still be a big success despite the fuss over a little bit of gayness, it may show nervous Hollywood studio execs that LGBT characters and themes aren’t the kiss of death for big budget movies that they seem to think they are.

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Benedict Cumberbatch Is Going To Find Out How to Stop Time

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Benedict Cumberbatch​ already cracked the enigma code in The Imitation Game, has been jumping through dimensions in Doctor Strange, and now he wants to find out How To Stop Time. Well, sort of. That’s the title of the latest film the actor has become attached to, at least.

How To Stop Time is the first adult novel in four years by Matt Haig. It tells the story of Tom Hazard (Cumberbatch), a man who may look like an ordinary 41-year-old but, owing to an extremely rare condition, has been alive for centuries. It’s described as ‘a wildly imagined love story that spans centuries and continents and cements Haig’s reputation as one of the most original and exciting novelists of his generation.’

As well as starring, Cumberbatch will Executive Produce the movie through his SunnyMarch production company. The novel will hit shelves this summer, although it’s not clear when we might get to see the movie.

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Ridley Scott Directing Movie About Getty Kidnapping, With Natalie Portman Circling To Star

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Ridley Scott is busy finishing up his latest Alien movie, Covenant, and while he’s promised there’s another trip into world of xenomorphs coming in the future, he’s planning something rather different before he completes his Alien prequel trilogy. Variety reports he’s set to direct a movie about the real-life kidnapping of the grandson of billionaire John Paul Getty, with Natalie Portman possibly starring.

The film will be about, ‘the 1973 kidnap in Italy of J. Paul Getty III — the rebellious teenage grandson of oil billionaire J. Paul Getty, who was reluctant to pay the $17 million ransom demanded by the kidnappers… The kidnappers sent a lock of hair and the teen’s severed right ear to the family to convince them pay the ransom. Harris and the boy’s father eventually convinced the elder Getty to pay a $2.9 million ransom, resulting in the teenager being freed after six months. He had been chained to a stake in a cave in Italy.’

Natalie Portman is circling the role of John Paul Getty III’s mother, Gail Harris, a role Angelina Jolie was recently offered, but turned down due to scheduling issues. Scott is planning to start shooting almost immediately after he’s completed publicity duties on Alien:Covenant, with filming set to begin in Italy in late May.

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A Very Sordid Wedding (US Cinema Review) – Back into the mad lives of the residents of Winters, Texas

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Del Shores’ Sordid Lives has had quite a life. It started out a play, before becoming a movie in 2000. The film quickly developed a cult following and spawned a prequel TV series in 2008. Now it’s gotten a sequel. While the likes of Olivia Newton John, Beth Grant and Beau Bridges from the original film don’t return, Bonnie Bedelia, Leslie Jordan, Lorna Scott, Rosemary Alexander and others all return for this new visit to Winters, Texas, where the people are still a little nuts, even if some of them have softened over time.

It’s 2015, and Ty (Kirk Geiger), who was coming to terms with his sexuality in the first film, is now legally married to a man. His mother, Latrelle (Bedelia), is still living in Winters, but isn’t quite as difficult a person as she once was, although she’s still got an edge when pushed. However, when she discovers she’s going to become a grandmother, she realises perhaps she’s still got a bit of a journey to go on to really open up her heart. [Read more…]

Dropping The Soap (VoD Review) – Jane Lynch & Paul Witten head into a campy soap opera world

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The web series Dropping The Soap has been in the works for several years, but it’s only now that it’s arriving on VoD platforms, including the LGBT-centric streaming service, Dekkoo.com. It’s a 10-episode series, taking us into the mad world of the (fictional) US soap opera, Collided Lives.

Julian Draker (Paul Witten) is the star of Collided Lives, an egotistical man, obsessed with getting enough close-ups, maintaining his soap star status and ensuring nobody else upstages him. However, he has stiff competition from co-star Kit Knockers (Kate Mines), who would like nothing more than to knock Julian off his perch and become Collided Lives’ main star. [Read more…]