Gus Van Sant.
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Van Sant and Singer Race to Harvey Milk
Truman Capote had both Capote and Infamous made about him, and now it looks like another queer legend is going to be the subject of dueling biopics. Gay director Gus Van Sant has announced his intentions to make a movie about former San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk, an outspoken champion of gay rights before he was assassinated by a rival politician in 1978. Van Sant’s project will go head-to-head with gay director Bryan Singer’s adaptation of the Randy Shilts biography The Mayor of Castro Street – a project, ironically, to which Van Sant was once attached and which Romeo has been covering for years. No production date has been set for either film, but Singer’s already committed to a WWII drama with Tom Cruise, shooting this summer.
Chicago Creators Have an Eye on Nine
Gay director Rob Marshall and producer Harvey Weinstein first collaborated on the Oscar-winning moneymaker Chicago, so it’s no surprise they’re shopping for another musical. This time they’ve set their sights on Nine, the Tony-winning show based on Fellini’s classic midlife crisis movie, 8 1/2. And as they did with Chicago, Marshall and Weinstein are looking at Hollywood’s biggest stars to fill the top roles. For the male lead – a movie director at a crossroads – the names bandied about include Antonio Banderas (who starred in Nine’s 2003 Broadway revival), Johnny Depp, George Clooney, and Javier Bardem, while Gwyneth Paltrow, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Anne Hathaway, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, and Judi Dench are the top choices for the six principal females. No performers – or even a screenwriter – have yet been confirmed.
Fry Takes a Personal Look at HIV
Perhaps best known to American audiences for his comic roles, gay actor-writer (and director of Bright Young Things) Stephen Fry is returning to the serious topic of HIV, which was touched on in his 1992 movie, Peter’s Friends. Fry’s new and currently untitled BBC documentary, made to mark the 25th anniversary of the Terrence Higgins Trust, a British charity, will examine Fry’s friends who have died of AIDS complications or are still living with HIV. Romeo hopes that BBC America will pick up the film, along with two other projects that Fry is making for the U.K. network: Stephen Fry in America, which will see the Wilde star traversing the lower 48 in a London taxi cab, and Last Chance To See, featuring Fry and a zoologist tracking down animals on the verge of extinction.
Brothers & Sisters Star Explores Virgin Territory
The gay brother on ABC’s Brothers & Sisters, straight (alas) British actor Matthew Rhys, has a full schedule when his TV season ends. He’ll star opposite Hayden Christensen, Mischa Barton, and Tim Roth in Virgin Territory, about young and fabulous Florentines sitting out the Black Plague in the Italian countryside, then turn to playing legendary poet Dylan Thomas in The Best Time of Our Lives for gay director John Maybury (Love Is the Devil, The Jacket). With a cast that also includes Cillian Murphy, Keira Knightley, and Lindsay Lohan, count on Best Time to be an art-house sensation with lots of Oscar buzz. (Linsday Lohan as Dylan Thomas’ wife? At least she’s familiar with the insides of pubs.) Virgin will be out by the end of 2007, with the Thomas biopic set for 2008.
Romeo San Vicente remembers what it was like to be virgin territory – but just barely. He can be reached care of this publication or at DeepInsideHollywood@qsyndicate.com.