Stephen Fry Braves Storm
Queer British comic actor Stephen Fry has landed his next screen role in the film adaptation of Stormbreaker. Based on the first novel in author Anthony Horowitz's series of books about a reluctant teenage spy, the film will also star Andy Serkis ( Gollum in The Lord of the Rings ) as the disfigured henchman of an evil villain, played by Mickey Rourke. Ewan McGregor, Alicia Silverstone, Bill Nighy ( Love Actually ) , Sophie Okonedo ( Hotel Rwanda ) , and Missi Pyle ( Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ) have already joined the cast. Fry will play Smithers —surely no Simpsons pun intended—a creator of exotic spy gadgets. Horowitz is adapting his own book, and Geoffrey Sax, whose credits include the lesbian-themed TV movie Tipping The Velvet, will handle directing duties for the movie, due to arrive in 2006.
Christopher Landon Visits Disturbia
Indie film fans may recall a short film from 2000 called $30, which was included in the third installment of the Boys Life film series. The poignant story of a closeted teenager whose father rents him a prostitute ( Sara Gilbert ) for the night—the odd couple end up talking and watching Little House on The Prairie instead—was directed by Christopher Landon, the gay son of late Hollywood legend Michael Landon. Now Landon is back with a new script, Disturbia. The cleverly titled teen-centered story, described as an homage to Alfred Hitchcock's classic Peeping Tom thriller Rear Window, was purchased by the Montecito Picture Co. and will be co-produced by Ivan Reitman. There's no cast or director news yet, but Romeo will be spying on this one's development with a telephoto lens to match Jimmy Stewart's.
Liza Turns Back the Clock
Old-school Broadway queens can rejoice! Liza with a Z is coming back. And you can send thank-you notes to queer Hollywood powerbrokers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron for having the vision to dust it off. The classic Emmy and Peabody Award-winning 1972 musical special from Ms. Minnelli was filmed in front of an invitation-only audience on Broadway, aired once on NBC, and has been left to age in a vault ever since. The producers will oversee the digital remastering and restoration of the special, to which Minnelli still owns the rights, and Showtime will repremiere Z sometime in 2006. Now if only a TiVo could be programmed that far in advance.
Bravo Gets Even Gayer
Faithful viewers of Bravo's addictive reality series Project Runway might be wondering what happened to the show's queer winner, Jay McCarroll, after the cameras stopped rolling. Well, wonder no more, because the cameras kept going. Project Jay, a follow-up documentary special, is due to air this fall on Bravo and will explore the next step in the mouthy, flamboyant McCarroll's career in fashion design as he strives to start his own line. Also due later this fall on the cable channel is Great Things about Being ... . Each week that title will be rounded-out with subjects like 'Blonde,' 'In Your 30s,' 'A Red State,' 'Fat,' and 'Gay.'
Romeo assumes that living in a red state isn't on the show's list of great things about being gay, but you never know.
