After making his most recent films for Netflix, acclaimed director Richard Linklater (“Boyhood”) will return to cinemas with Sony Pictures Classics and his frequent collaborator Ethan Hawke (the “Before” trilogy) for “Blue Moon.” Gay star of “Ripley” and “All of Us Strangers,” Andrew Scott has also joined the cast that includes Margaret Qualley and Bobby Cannavale, in a story about the final days of songwriter Lorenz Hart. Hart was, of course, one half of the legendary team of Rodgers and Hart, and the film will take place on the 1943 opening night of “Oklahoma!,” the first musical Rodgers worked on with Oscar Hammerstein II instead of Hart. Their working partnership was as fraught with conflict as Hart’s life was with depression, alcoholism and his position as a closeted gay man. In other words not light material, but no one ever said historical facts were going to be as pretty as a song. No release dates are planned, but late 2025 film festival appearances feel like a good guess.
Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer and Linda Lavin join Hulu’s ‘Mid-Century Modern’
The vintage-style multi-camera sitcom has fallen from favor lately. The kind filmed in front of an audience, the kind that harkens back to classics like “I Love Lucy,” has taken a backseat to the single-camera pleasures of shows like “Modern Family,” “30 Rock,” “The Office” and others like it. But now Ryan Murphy and “Will & Grace” creator Max Mutchnick are prepping a new old-fashioned venture, “Mid-Century Modern,” for Hulu. Starring Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer and “Alice” veteran Linda Lavin, the series will be set in Palm Springs and features Lane and Bomer as gay housemates living with Lane’s mother (Lavin). The easy pitch is, of course, “updated ‘Golden Girls,’” but that’s the beloved title that gets thrown around anytime older characters on television live in a house together, so we’re looking forward to what really transpires when the finished product hits Hulu. When will that be is anyone’s guess, so we’ll update you as this develops.
Queer wrestler Max the Impaler headed to horror film ‘Dolly’
If you’re not familiar with the world of wrestling and its larger-than-life characters, or if you never knew there were queer wrestlers, meet Max the Impaler, “The Nonbinary Nightmare.” Part of the National Wrestling Alliance – and, for the record, not the only queer wrestler out there making the world more entertaining – Max’s persona is part monster, part Thunderdome fashionista. They’re an imposing opponent whose gift for terror is about to translate into their first film role in “Dolly,” a horror feature from filmmaker Rod Blackhurst. Max will play the title character, a monster-like creature who kidnaps a young woman, and other than that the plot is under wraps, though Blackhurst has stated that he’s keen to make a movie that combines elements of classic ’70s horror like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and the New French Extremity of early 2000s shockers like “Martyrs.” In production now, be on the lookout in the not too distant future for a movie with the title that has nothing to do with Ms. Parton.
A planned Studio 54 musical wants to dance on Broadway
There’s already been a musical about Studio 54. It was called “This Ain’t No Disco,” it opened off-Broadway and had an original score. But you know what people love? Songs they know. So here comes a disco jukebox musical based on the legendary (and short-lived, 1977 to 1980) Manhattan nightclub from producers Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron, with a book from Chad Hodge (“Holiday Inn”) and a director-choreographer in Tony winner Sergio Trujillo (“Ain’t Too Proud”). For authenticity, Joanne Horowitz, the woman who handled Studio 54’s celebrity clientele back in the day, will serve as a consulting producer. There’s no cast yet, but someone is going to have to play Cher, Liza, Elton, Halston and Warhol. And the possibilities for music are endless but had better lean into Donna Summer rather than “Disco Duck” if it knows what’s good for it.
Romeo San Vicente wants some hot stuff.
