Gay actor Colman Domingo’s career is on fire right now. His upcoming comedy, “Drive Away Dolls,” hits theaters any moment, he just wowed audiences as Mister in the musical adaptation of “The Color Purple,” he’s enjoying his first career Best Actor Oscar nomination for playing Black civil rights movement icon Bayard Rustin in “Rustin,” and now he’s been cast as Joe Jackson, troubled, controversial patriarch of the musical Jackson family in the upcoming Michael Jackson biopic, “Michael.” To be directed by Antoine Fuqua with a script from Oscar nominee John Logan, the film will star Jaafar Jackson — nephew of Michael and son of older brother Jermaine — as the King of Pop. There’s no news yet of plot details or other cast, but Domingo’s trademark onscreen intensity will certainly bring new dimensions to the hard-driving force behind the family business. Universal is set to release it in April of 2025.
Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton join ‘The Room Next Door’
It’s gear-shifting time for gay Spanish filmmaking legend Pedro Almodovar. He was set to make his English-language feature debut with “A Manual For Cleaning Women” before dropping out of the project, and now he’s picked up the opportunity again with “The Room Next Door,” which will star Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton. Also featuring John Turturro, the new drama is the story of two women friends, one a war correspondent, the other a novelist, and how they both maintain their relationship amidst the troubling and sometimes extreme circumstances of life. Themes of friendship, sex and death come into play, and all of it will no doubt ring with the same empathy-driven truth that have come to be part of the Almodovar aesthetic. Set to shoot in New York and Madrid, this one has all the markings of a future event for cinephiles.
‘I Saw The TV Glow’ unnerves Sundance audiences
“I Saw the TV Glow,” coming soon from A24, is the year’s first volley of queer weirdness from innovative filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun. After her first feature, “We’re All Going to The World’s Fair,” achieved critical love and Gen Z queer adulation, the trans filmmaker’s sophomore effort seemed poised to breakout, and it looks like that’s what’s about to happen. A hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, starring Justice Smith (“Jurassic World Dominion”) and Bridgett Lundy-Paine (“Atypical”), it’s the story of two teenagers bonding and obsessing over fandom of a TV show — one steeped in “Twin Peaks” oddness and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” references — and how it transforms their identities. Part ambient horror, part metaphorical trans narrative, and fully mesmerizing, “TV Glow” is already on track to become a cult favorite and touchstone of the next wave of queer filmmaking. Look for A24 to drop it into theaters sometime this year.
Hunter Schafer joins Emma Stone for ‘Kinds of Kindness’
“Euphoria” regular Hunter Schafer, already a rising star, as well as a model and trans activist, will see her profile rise even higher in the next project from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, the anthology film “Kinds of Kindness.” His most recent movie, “Poor Things,” currently sits on 11 Academy Award nominations, including one for star Emma Stone, who will also appear in “Kindness,” her third project with Lanthimos. Co-written by the filmmaker Efthimis Filippou, the upcoming release will involve several contemporary stories — unlike Lanthimos’ last two period films, and of course plot details are under wraps — with actors playing multiple roles. The ensemble includes “Poor Things” star Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Margaret Qualley (“Drive Away Dolls”) and Hong Chau (“Showing Up”), so be ready to keep them all separate across the narratives when it hits theaters sometime later this year.
Romeo San Vicente has always been “The Favourite”