Wicked: Part One has added another incredible record to its already long list of achievements.

Over the last few months, the fantasy feature has dominated the pop culture sphere following its release on 22 November.  

From its larger-than-life musical numbers to the showstopping cast performances, Wicked: Part One has solidified itself as one of the biggest hits of 2024.

In addition to earning universal acclaim, the film has broken an array of box office records, including the biggest global opening for a non-sequel film for 2024 and the biggest global and domestic opening for a movie based on a Broadway show.

While Wicked: Part One’s theatrical run is slowly coming to an end, the movie has continued to achieve incredible feats.

On 30 December, it was announced that the beloved film had become the highest-grossing Broadway adaptation globally, earning an estimated $634 million.

The film that previously held the record was 2008’s Mamma Mia!, which earned a whopping $610 million worldwide.

The recent box office news comes a year before the musical’s highly anticipated sequel, Wicked: For Good, hits cinemas.

On the latest episode of Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast, Cynthia Erivo teased what fans can expect from the upcoming film, revealing she co-wrote an original song with legendary songwriter Stephen Schwartz.

“I don’t know if you’re ready for it. I mean, I love the song, and I remember when we filmed it, the cast and crew were crying,” she teased.

“So I don’t know. And I don’t know if that’s just because they were emotional that day or that’s what the song does.”

Erivo went on to describe the untitled song as “very, very special” before stating that she didn’t want to give away any more details.

“I have a feeling that even the title will move you,” she cheekily added.

Directed by Jon M Chu, Wicked: Part One dives into the unlikely friendship between Elphaba Thropp (Erivo), a powerful young woman misunderstood and feared due to her green skin, and Galinda Upland (Ariana Grande), a blonde and whimsical woman “gilded by privilege and ambition.”

The synopsis reads: “The two meet as students at Shiz University in the fantastical Land of Oz and forge an unlikely but profound friendship. Following an encounter with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches a crossroads, and their lives take very different paths.

As previously mentioned, Wicked: Part One received widespread acclaim from critics and viewers after its release, with many lauding Erivo and Grande’s captivating performances, the film’s special effects and the story’s faithfulness to the source material.

Fortunately, viewers at home can finally binge-watch Wicked: Part One when it lands on digital platforms on 3 January in the UK and 31 December in the US.

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Hayley Kiyoko has opened up about the ” long and emotional journey” she embarked on to get a movie deal for Girls Like Girls.

On 4 December, it was announced that the beloved singer was directing a film adaptation of her hit 2015 single and 2023 book.  

The coming-of-age film is set to follow the whirlwind romance between Coley, who believes she’s not worthy of love and Sonya, who has “never been with a girl before.”

In addition to taking the directorial reigns, Kiyoko signed on as co-writer alongside Stefanie Scott, who starred in the former’s hit music video.

Lastly, the film is backed by Focus Features and the Oscar-winning producer Marc Platt.

In a statement at the time, the ‘She’ singer expressed her excitement to bring Girls Like Girls to life, writing on Instagram: “Since I released Girls Like Girls in 2015, I’ve made a vow to myself and to you all to do everything in my power to create hopeful queer content at the largest scale possible.”

While a movie adaptation of Girls Like Girls is finally happening, bringing the romantic story to the silver screen was far from easy.

In a recent interview with PEOPLE, the 33-year-old talent described the process as a “very long, emotional journey” – adding that she “dreamed of making it into a feature” a year after the song’s music video was released.

 

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“There was a lot of trial and error trying to find people who can not only see the vision but also be able to get it made and financed too,” she said.

While Kiyoko admitted that she wanted to give up at times, she kept going due to her desire to bring “hopeful queer representation” to the LGBTQIA+ community.

“[I felt] like it’s my destiny to direct this song and to get this story out there. I was like, ‘If I give up, then who else is going to do this?” And so that was what kept me going,” she said.

The ‘For the Girls’ singer also credited the art of manifesting to Girls Like Girls getting a film deal, revealing that her 2023 single ‘Greenlight’ was a form of manifestation.

“It’s funny. I had some fans be like, ‘Did you write Greenlight for this?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I wrote ‘Greenlight’ last year because I was so frustrated that the film wasn’t getting green-lit.’ I did it to manifest the green light,” she explained.

Toward the end of her interview, Kiyoko expressed her excitement for fans to see the movie, exclaiming that she was going to put her heart and soul into the project.

We can’t wait to see Girls Like Girls come to life.

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Greta Gerwig sets the record straight on the Barbie sequel rumours.

On 13 December, The Hollywood Reporter announced that a second film was in the “early stages” of development at Warner Brothers.

According to a “well-placed” source, Gerwig and her writing partner/husband, Noah Baumbach, had reportedly come up with an idea and brought it to the movie studio.

Another source told the news outlet that despite being in its early stages, it has “opened the door for deal talk.”

However, before fans could get their pink outfits lined up, a representative for Gerwig and Baumbach swiftly denied the news in a statement to the aforementioned news outlet.

“This reporting is not legitimate,” they said. A Warner Bros. rep echoed similar sentiments, adding, “THR’s reporting is inaccurate.”

While it looks like a Barbie sequel isn’t happening – well, at least at the moment – Gerwig isn’t wholly opposed to the idea.

During her March interview for Time’s Women of the Year feature, the Little Women director said: “My North Star is, ‘What do I deeply love? What do I really care about? What’s the story underneath this story?

“If I find the undertow, then we get it. If I don’t find an undertow, there’s no more.”

Barbie’s lead star and producer, Margot Robbie, seemed to share the same outlook when she spoke to the Associated Press in November 2023.

“I think we put everything into this one. We didn’t build it to be a trilogy or something. Greta put everything into this movie, so I can’t imagine what would be next,” she said.

After years of anticipation, Barbie finally hit cinemas worldwide in July 2023.

The film follows a “stereotypical” Barbie (Robbie) who resides in Barbie Land, a matriarchal society where women are self-sufficient and occupy all positions of power.

After Barbie begins to worry about her mortality, she embarks on a journey of self-discovery into the real world – assisted by her “stereotypical” himbo boyfriend Ken (Ryan Gosling).

Following its release, the fantasy comedy received universal acclaim from viewers and critics for its clever script, empowering feminist message and Robbie’s performance as the titular character.

In addition to the aforementioned praises, the record-breaking film was lauded for its diverse cast, which included America Ferrera, Will Ferrell, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Simu Liu, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Mackey, Sharon Rooney, Dua Lipa, and the legendary Mirren, who played the film’s narrator.

For more Barbie content, check out GAY TIMES‘ interview with Issa Rae and Simu Liu.

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 LGBTQIA+ representation is historically lacking from the cinematic canon. We reassess the figure of the outsider in the films streaming on MUBI and show how the queer gaze can offer new readings on classic films.

WORDS BY MEGAN WALLACE
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MUBI

MUBI is a streaming service where you can find great, hand-picked films from across the world. In the ongoing series Through the Lens, we’ll be engaging with cinematic representation and queer interpretation via the films streaming on MUBI.

If you know your film history, you’ll be aware that explicit queer and trans representation is a relatively modern phenomenon in Hollywood. Looking towards the archives, particularly in Hollywood’s golden era, there’s a dearth of queer storylines and characters. 

This is because of the Hays Code, a set of industry guidelines which first surfaced in 1934 and encouraged film studios to avoid themes that were considered taboo – same-sex desire being one such topic. 

Where are the queers in cinema history?

The moralising of the Hays Code eventually crumbled, in no small part due to filmmakers pushing the limits of what could be shown on screen. 

However, while depictions of queer characters became slightly more common from the 1960s onwards, they were either solely established via innuendo or rooted in negative stereotypes which supported reigning anti-queer bias. 

But what if we flipped this? We can apply a queer gaze onto filmic works and allow ourselves to view characters and plot lines from an LGBTQIA+ point of view. Suddenly, queer-coded villains become subversive anti-heros.

Is the outlaw always queer?

While there are plenty of camp films out there which could easily be given the queer gaze treatment, there are other – less obvious – titles which are ripe for dissection. 

Recently, filmmakers have been embodying the phrase ‘be gay, do crime’ through tearaway queer characters but the outlaw is a recurring archetype in cinema – whether it’s cowboys in the wild west or seedy gangsters in film noir. 

But what if those outlaws can be seen as a representation of what it means to be queer in a cis-heteronormative society?

How Natural Born Killers nuked the nuclear family

To test this out, let’s look to Oliver Stone’s 90s classic Natural Born Killers. A joyride of a film, the thriller is helmed by two lovers who emerge from traumatic childhoods with a taste for violence and chaos. 

The film centres on husband and wife Mickey and Mallory Knox, played by Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelson, and it’s hard not to notice their palpable, primal sexual chemistry. And while this might position the protagonists as a straight couple, there’s plenty of potential for queer readings here.

Obviously, there are the splashy outfits – Harrelson wandering around like a cowboy in blue jeans and leather like a Tom of Finland drawing – but it’s also the way that the couple so flagrantly offend the rules and norms of society.

As the title explains, they’re ‘natural born killers’ who delight in murder for murder’s sake. In this way, they seem to parallel the gay outlaw as written about by Leo Bersani – an irredeemably evil figure who, rejected by the reigning moral order, refuses all ethical logic and instead embraces treachery and betrayal as an ethical necessity on the path to queer freedom.  

Yet as the duo embark on their killing spree, their moral bankruptcy is mirrored by the sociopathic cops on their trail and the scandalmongering journalists who obsessively document their crimes. If they’re twisted, the film seems to say, then at least they own up to it, unlike the rest of the world.

While Natural Born Killers is bombastic, graphic and sometimes hard to stomach, its outlaw protagonists pivot their fringe position as outsiders from a place of dejection into one of power – no matter the human cost.

Watch Natural Born Killers on ​​MUBI with an exclusive Gay Times reader offer – 2 months of streaming for free.

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From camp costumes to picture-perfect images, we break down Barbie’s journey from a cardboard box to queer cultural phenomenon. 

WORDS BY DAVID OPIE

As a wise woman once said, life in plastic “is fantastic” — but if Greta Gerwig’s Barbie film is anything to go by, it’s also fabulous. Like, outrageously so. And no, we’re not just talking about Ken (Ryan Gosling) and Ken (Simu Liu) trying to “beach” each other off. Although we can talk about that more if you like. 

Beyond the film’s neon pink trappings and those groovy disco moves, Barbie isn’t just giving camp. It’s serving full-blown gay, and by “gay”, we mean “gay in a crisis.” If Margot Robbie’s Barbie wasn’t already blonde, she would have bleached her hair even faster than a gay man three days into lockdown. 

But, Barbie is already the epitome of blonde perfection, so when the cracks in her perfect pastel world start to show, she seeks out help from Kate McKinnon’s Barbie character instead. It’s there that Barbie is presented with a Matrix-style choice to make, but with the red and blue pills swapped out for a glitzy high heel and a fetching mocha-brown Birkenstock. 

It’s a decision as old as time, for lesbians at least, and any implication that Barbie might be one herself hits full force when she bursts into song just seconds later with the Indigo Girls classic ‘Closer To Fine’.

Lines like “There’s more than one answer to these questions. Pointing me in a crooked line” demonstrate the crossroads that Barbie finds herself in at this point, while the fact that both she and Ken are singing the track together with such gusto demonstrates that they’re both raging homosexuals.

Nothing unites the gays and the sapphics quite like America’s best lesbian folk rock music duo. But who would have thought that Barbie and Ken of all people would be gay and do crime so brazenly in Hollywood fare like this?

Since Barbara Millicent Roberts debuted with that zebra-striped swimsuit at the American International Toy Fair on March 9, 1959, the general masses have long presumed that Barbie is straight, and it’s easy to see why. Between her endless love for Ken and obsession with things deemed stereotypically “girly”, Barbie seems to perpetuate heteronormative ideals with all the verve of a youth pastor singing acoustic Ed Sheeran songs at Bible Camp – yet such a reductive view misses the point of Barbie entirely.

Back when Mattel’s Ruth Handler first created Barbie, she did so in reaction to all the baby and housewife dolls that dominated girls’ bedrooms in the 50s. The idea was to emancipate children from striving towards just motherhood and motherhood alone. As Handler stated in her 1994 biography, “My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices.”

Unfortunately, those “choices” have never included queerness, at least not in any direct or meaningful way. That’s not to say being gay is a choice, but by failing to conceptualise queerness in Barbie’s world at all — beyond the occasional round of allyship — this void held children back from envisioning a future that was anything other than straight. 

Still, this didn’t stop millions of baby queers from finding ways to make Barbie their own. In the words of Jennifer “Mother” Coolidge, “The gays just know how to do stuff,” and that’s especially true when it comes to co-opting things that weren’t originally made for us. We’ve had enough practice, after all, but in Barbie’s case, sociologist Alexander Avila suggests that it’s precisely because of the brand’s extreme heteronormativity that queer people connect with it so much. 

“Barbie represents such an exaggerated and caricatured version of heteronormative life that it ironically breaks the facade of heteronormativity altogether,” says Avila, the creator behind Overanalyzing the Barbie Movies with Queer Marxist Theory.

“Barbie’s perfect pink house and perfect pink boyfriend are comical, not because they are pink but because they are supposedly perfect… too perfect. Barbie and Ken’s ‘perfect’ heterosexuality is an imitation without an original, a testament to the ways heteronormativity, for queer people at least, feels so funny, so silly, so contrived. In playing with our Barbies, the wear of playtime shows how a lived life can never match this perfect heteronormativity.”

Because Barbie’s branding is so contrived and artificial on a surface level, there’s huge scope for queer people, young and old, to imprint their own experiences on the doll and find personal meaning that resonates beyond the original design and purpose.

“It doesn’t take much to chop Barbie’s hair off, switch Barbie’s clothes, pronouns, partners, voice, or story,” says Erica Rand, the author behind Barbie’s Queer Accessories and professor of gender and sexuality studies at Bates College. “I think that’s partly why some people fondly remember what they did with Barbie as an early hint of their own queerness, and why adults gravitate to Barbie as a vehicle for play, protest, and parody.”

“I got interested in studying Barbie myself in 1990 when a friend sent me an issue of the dyke sex magazine On Our Backs with some photo porn involving a woman using Barbie as a dildo. (For inquiring minds, feet first.) I was also jazzed, a few years later, when the Barbie Liberation Organization bought talking Barbie and GI Joe dolls, switched their voice boxes, and returned them to the store for unsuspecting consumers to find.”

It’s important to note here that Barbie doesn’t universally appeal to everyone who identifies as queer. “Some people remember being pressured to demonstrate proper gender and sexual tendencies by playing or not playing with her,” says Rand. “Others remember being affected by the way that, even when Barbie’s world is multiracial, it elevates the blondest of white people. As this movie itself illustrates, the primary Barbie and Ken are always white.”

But for those who did play with Barbie as a kid, or even as an adult if that dildo story is anything to go by, there’s something truly radical about using something intrinsically straight to explore our own femininity and experiences with gender. By subverting Barbie’s physical appearance and even her purpose, queer people can reappropriate her in ways that push back at the traditional norms she’s presumed to symbolise, at least in the mainstream. 

That’s also true for Ken as well. Look no further than the #LesbianKen meme or Earring Magic Ken, the gayest version of Ken who’s ever existed. It’s a low bar, admittedly, but with that pink mesh top paired with this season’s must-have chrome cock ring accessory, Barbie herself must have been questioning their relationship when this version of Ken first minced onto the scene in 1992.  

Mattel started to question the point of Earring Magic Ken too, so they halted production just six weeks later in a bid to avoid being tarred with that rainbow brush. Clearly though, they underestimated how fast the gays can walk back and forth to their nearest toy shop. Only two years before The Simpsons aired ‘Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy,’ a gaggle of Waylon Smithers’ type gays bought up enough toys in those short six weeks to make Earring Magic Ken the best-selling Ken in Mattel history.  

We really weren’t lying when we said, “The gays just know how to do stuff,” and that old adage also rings true when it comes to tackling the darker aspects of Ken’s fruity association with all things kitsch.

Around this same time, a satirical zine named Diseased Pariah News reimagined Barbie and Ken as ‘AIDS Barbie’ and ‘KS Ken’. Fake adverts for toys like ‘AIDS Barbie’s New Malibu Dream Hospice’ helped people living with AIDS reject victimhood by poking fun at unattainable beauty standards and how they contrasted with the illness that ravaged their bodies.

Far less radical, yet still revolutionary was Mattel’s decision to finally give kids the power to reimagine dolls for themselves 27 years later with a gender-inclusive line in 2019. The Creatable World dolls come with various clothing options and different hair lengths that can be mixed together in more than 100 different combinations, cock ring not included. 

Barbie herself isn’t quite as flexible yet, double joints aside, but the recent move to model a new version of her on trans icon Laverne Cox does help affirm that Barbie really can be for anyone. Or at least has the potential to be one day. 

“Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices,” said Ruth Handler, but the Barbie she created was born in a world where these “choices” and even the concept of womanhood was far more limited, forcing queer people to find their own meanings in relation to Barbie and Ken. Or “inspiring” rather than “forcing”, depending on how you look at it. But now, over sixty years later, it’s Barbie who will have to make this choice for herself at last.

Will Margot Robbie’s Barbie don a practical Birkenstock and go on a journey of gay self-discovery onscreen? It’s not like we’re short of bangers from the Indigo Girls to soundtrack this. Or will she choose a glitzy high heel and continue her plastic, not-so-fantastic life without even trying to see what else could be out there? Like the queer kids who admire Barbie, Barbie herself can now be anything she wants to be. All she has to do is imagine it. And remember, when it comes to imagination, “Life is your creation.”

The post Life in Plastic: A gay history of Barbie’s journey to the big screen appeared first on GAY TIMES.

Director Saim Sadiq on his history-making film and writing an empathic narrative for Pakistan.

WORDS BY ZOYA RAZA-SHEIKH

The independent film landscape is not an easy place to be, especially for productions slapped with the “foreign” category title. It’s an arduous task pushing out promo cycles and getting the right voices to back a project you and your team have spent months working on in the blistering heat. Then, imagine, your film gets banned a week before its nationwide rollout. Well, that’s exactly what happened to Saim Sadiq, the director of the acclaimed film, Joyland.

While Joyland has some hope of making it to wider audiences in Pakistan, the emotionally-packed film is making international rounds as a film to keep an eye on. With a zoomed in focus on an impossible love story, a family reckoning with its own conservatisms, and what it truly means to foster empathy for the people of Pakistan, Joyland is an unprecedented movie that does not hold back. GAY TIMES speaks to Saim Sadiq to find out more about the film’s layered characters, putting Pakistan in the spotlight, and why trans representation doesn’t always have to be didactic.

Joyland lends itself into a highly important cultural conversation about identity and how we see one another. For some people, Joyland may be the first time they’ve seen South Asian identity portrayed . What do you think audiences, particularly Western viewers, will take away from this film?
I don’t hope for a very specific takeaway from the film. Films are supposed to be more complex than that, as an experience. The takeaway isn’t ‘let’s not be mean to trans people’ because everybody knows that. You don’t need to make a film to tell that to anyone. You shouldn’t make your film just to give that sort of basic lesson especially when you bring intersectionality. I would like the film to foster our sense of empathy for people around us and for ourselves, which is very lacking these days.

Do you think Pakistan and wider audiences need a movie like Joyland right now?

I’m not going to prescribe my film as the antidote to things that are happening in the country; I get a little uncomfortable doing that. Having said that, this is a film that I don’t think they need right now. This film would have the same relevance, unfortunately, 20 years ago, 50 years ago. You could have told the same story 50 years from now because patriarchy is not something that was invented yesterday, it’s been there for centuries.

In India and Pakistan, a film that looks at gender identity and sexuality with an empathetic lens and puts a conservative family at the front at the centre of that narrative and it doesn’t sort of bully them into accepting liberal values but instead tries to understand them from their perspective. For me, that is what makes it perhaps an honest and more complex look at these issues and not superimposing the way these issues are spoken about in the west and taking them and superimposing them onto Pakistan and India because our societies are different, our family systems are different, our way of being is different. We have to formulate our own way of discussing these things, and that may or may not be the way that it’s being discussed in other parts of the world.

Joyland brings to life a powerful fictional story but falls on identities that are very real in today’s society. How did you navigate the way in which you would bring these characters to life?

There’s only one character that I really needed to step out of my frame of reference to engage with the community or with certain people too, which is Biba’s (Alina Khan) character. We did liaison with the Khwaja Sira society, which is a non-governmental organisation in Lahore that works for trans people. So, we had the trans community [involved] and then the biggest resource was Alina herself. I had been working with her for three years before we shot the film, so she was aware of everything and had given me a lot to put into the script. I did my research on that character.

At the same time, I didn’t want it to be a trans story, I knew that it wasn’t like a trans rights story. It wasn’t a film about the trans experience, it was certainly a film that had a trans person part of the ensemble. All the other characters are fictional but not fictional. I was lucky because I knew that I was interested in making a film that explored these characters and observed them and that’s why I was happy that the film has a very thin plot and not a lot happens. You’re just really watching [characters] exist. Nothing happens until the very end and by observing these people. For me, that was an interesting thing to give good observations.

There is an unevenness or an impossibility in the relationship between Haider and Biba. What inspired the direction of their relationship as characters?

The first idea of the film came to me as it was a tragedy. Initially, when I started writing, the core of this film was like a Shakespearean or Greek tragedy but set in Pakistan. So, for me, it was not that I started out thinking that ‘oh, they have to be doomed’. I did think of ways to give them a shot. But, the first idea of the relationship used to be different. I kept rewriting and in the big final draft […] the film sort of really came to the fore, and everyone was like now we know what we’re making. That germ of the relationship was actually the last thing that they had together. The last two scenes when she’s talking about her surgeries and then the break up, that came to me as an impossible love story. It’s physically not possible. It’s emotionally not possible and yet, they do love each other.

What are you most proud of in this movie?

I think I’m really proud of the whole third act of the film. The third act of the film feels very honest and very surprising to a lot of people, but for me, I always engage with it emotionally.

Alina Khan stars as Biba in this film. Outside of her transness, how did she help bring this film to life? It’s impossible to see the film without her. In terms of small things like dialect for example. It’s not just the transness. This is actor stuff, so trans people in Pakistan, particularly in Lahore, speak Punjabi, but they also have a different dialect and have their own words. You can do the research and you can teach an actor how to do that, but there’s no way they would be able to pick it up in that way. I didn’t need to worry about accent, body language, behaviour, or cultural authenticity. Instead, we got to work on emotional consequences like where she is vulnerable and why she is so abrasive. Understanding those nuances is something that she did so beautifully.

Malala Yousafzai has been involved in the creation of this film as an executive producer and has defended it as it was banned. How did she get involved in this project?

She met one of our other producers in Sweden and so she had heard about the Pakistani film. She just started a production company called Extracurricular. The producer, who was white, said you’re from Pakistan and we just produced a Pakistani film and she asked ‘which one? Joyland?’. She had heard of it because of the reception at Cannes. At the time, the only screening that had happened was at Cannes so we were like if Malala is asking you for a link, you send the link. She expressed interest that she wanted to help.

With independent films, a person of such weight and stature coming on board to sort of elevate the profile of the film and bring it a certain level of attention helps with distribution and helps with giving those films a higher profile for the awards. It was a very quick and harmonious marriage. She’s very normal and chilled out and calls me randomly sometimes and being like to congratulate me when we’ve got the shortlist and I was like ‘what the fuck – my phone says Malala Yousafzai a calling me at 2am’ because I was in Pakistan. It’s surreal.

How did you feel about making history by getting shortlisted for the Oscars?

There was a lot of conversation about the ban and the reasons but also because we were gonna get disqualified. We’re not a big film but with whatever resources that we did have, we were campaigning and trying for the film to have its best shot in the sun for the shortlist. So, I felt relieved, honestly. I felt proud of the fact that Pakistan’s name was there. I’m not a very patriotic person, but, at that moment, I might say I did feel a little cutely patriotic. It’s nice. How often do you get to see Pakistan’s name on a list that’s not a bad list or a red list or a travel ban list or things like that? It’s usually bad, so enjoy it.

Last of all, what do you think makes Joyland such a powerful movie?

I’m really going to sound like a douchebag praising my own film. Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t want to know because we were all just trying to be honest and I hope that doesn’t sound like a load of crap or that’s me bullshitting and saying something that sounds nice, but it’s really just true. We were all concerned about being honest, right down to my costume girl saying [an actor] will not be wearing a dupatta in a scene if she’s in the kitchen. It was never about it that it doesn’t look nice, but that it’s not something that she would be doing. My style has had this surety about every character.

Everybody was trying to make the most engaging, stimulating, and honest version of the story and be truthful to these characters. You can write a nice story and take a nice shot and there are many great actors who can have great performances, but [it’s about] striving for honesty in those moments, or to keep the honesty alive. It’s the only collaborative art form that there is. It’s not a painting that I made. It’s a lot of other people and when a lot of other people come together, you have to believe in a certain level of energy that exists between those people that come together to make that film because there’s not a single artist.

Watch the official trailer for Joyland below. 

The post Joyland: How Saim Sadiq’s film empathetically spotlights Pakistan appeared first on GAY TIMES.

Richard Curtis has spoken with regret over the lack of diversity in his cult Christmas classic, Love Actually.

The director said: “My film is bound in some moments to feel out of date. The lack of diversity makes me feel uncomfortable and a bit stupid.”

The 66-year-old revisited the film, which made $247m at the global box office, in an ABC special ahead of its 20-year anniversary.

He said he was pleased that the film industry and wider society is changing to represent diverse narratives better, adding: “There is such extraordinary love that goes on every minute in so many ways, all the way around the world, and makes me wish my film was better.”

Love Actually was nominated for three BAFTAs and two Golden Globes when it was released in 2003.

The film has no LGBTQ+ couples in its narrative, which shows ten different interconnected stories about love.

A story about a lesbian romance, portrayed by Anne Reid and Frances de la Tour, was originally filmed but later removed.

This was one of four written stories that were cut.

There is one main character of colour, Peter, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Richard concluded by saying that in a film about the many forms of love, he has regrets about its limited representation.

The post Love Actually director feels “a bit stupid” about film’s lack of diversity appeared first on GAY TIMES.

Billy Eichner’s historic new movie, Bros, sold $4.8 million in tickets during its opening weekend – roughly 40 per cent less than anticipated.

The film was marketed as the first gay romantic comedy released by a major studio, with Eichner making history as the first openly gay man to co-write and star in one.

It focuses on two gay men, played by Eichner and Luke Macfarlane, who, according to Universal, “maybe, possibly, probably stumbling towards love. Maybe. They’re both very busy.”

All of the principal heterosexual roles are played by openly LGBTQ+ actors and actresses, with its cast including the likes of TS Madison, Monica Raymund and Guillermo Díaz.

Released on 30 September, Bros was booked onto 3,350 screens in the United States, with an estimated $30 to $40 million spent on promotion.

It landed in fourth place at the box office during its opening weekend after facing fierce competition from the likes of Smile, Don’t Worry Darling and The Woman King – which landed in first, second and third, respectively.

“We’ll see where we go from here,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution, in a phone call with The New York Times. “We’re incredibly proud of the film, and I really believe there is going to be great word of mouth.”

Eichner also said he is “very proud of this movie” and shared that he “snuck in” to watch Bros at a sold out cinema in Los Angeles, where the audience “howled with laughter start to finish”.

“Rolling Stone already has BROS on the list of the best comedies of the 21st century,” he wrote on Twitter. “What’s also true is that at one point a theater chain called Universal and said they were pulling the trailer because of the gay content. (Uni convinced them not to). America, fuck yeah, etc etc.”

https://twitter.com/billyeichner/status/1576685324209569796?s=20&t=r34IEelv90lqNVyq7DMzKg

In a follow-up tweet, the 44-year-old continued: “That’s just the world we live in, unfortunately. Even with glowing reviews, great Rotten Tomatoes scores, an A CinemaScore etc, straight people, especially in certain parts of the country, just didn’t show up for Bros. And that’s disappointing but it is what it is.”

The actor encouraged “everyone who isn’t a homophobic weirdo” to go and see the film: “And it *is* special and uniquely powerful to see this particular story on a big screen, esp for queer folks who don’t get this opportunity often. I love this movie so much. GO BROS!!”

https://twitter.com/billyeichner/status/1576686311829749761?s=20&t=r34IEelv90lqNVyq7DMzKg

Despite its performance at the box office, Bros was met with critical acclaim and holds an approval rating of 91% on Rotten Tomatoes as of 3 October.

It will be released in the UK on 28 October. You can watch the trailer below or by clicking here.

The post Billy Eichner addresses “disappointing” opening weekend for Bros appeared first on GAY TIMES.

Star of stage and screen Taron Egerton has confirmed the upcoming remake of classic 80s hit Little Shop of Horrors has been cancelled.

The Kingsman and Rocketman actor confirmed the film was axed to The Mirror.

He was set to star alongside Marvel alums Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson.

Billy Porter was rumoured to have joined the cast.

Egerton said: “I just don’t get it. There was so much goodwill around it but it just fizzled out. Who knows if it will come back, but I can’t help but feel that it just might not.”

“I love when Chris Evans talks about it because he’s keeping the hope alive, keeping that candle burning, but at the moment, my understanding is it’s completely dormant,” he added.

Filming for the movie-musical was set to commence in 2020, but was delayed due to the pandemic.

 

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Since then, it was pushed back numerous times, until it was finally shelved for good.

The 32-year-old was to play Seymour, a florist who buys an unusual plant which needed human blood to survive.

He appeared disappointed by the cancellation.

Egerton concluded: “That is a role where I feel like I could genuinely do something with it a bit different.”

“I think it is worthy of a reboot. Some reboots are cynical but some are inspired. I wish it would come back around but it’s out of my hands, unfortunately.”

Earlier this year, the actor joined the cast of West End play Cock, where he starred opposite Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey.

He quit the play due to personal circumstances.

The post Taron Egerton confirms Little Shop of Horrors remake is cancelled appeared first on GAY TIMES.

Actress Florence Pugh has criticised fans who only focussed on the sex scenes she does in upcoming film, Don’t Worry Darling.

Pugh starred opposite pop legend Harry Styles in the psychological thriller.

The pair play a married couple in the 1950s who have joined an experiential community. Pugh plays Alice Chambers, a housewife who learns disturbing secrets about where she is living.

The first trailer teased an oral sex scene on the dining table between Pugh and Styles.

A second trailer was released which depicted the leads doing more steamy scenes.

In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Pugh vented: “When it’s reduced to your sex scenes, or to watch the most famous man in the world go down on someone, it’s not why we do it. It’s not why I’m in this industry.”

“Obviously, with the nature of hiring the most famous pop star in the world, you’re going to have conversations like that. That’s just not what I’m going to be discussing because [this movie is] bigger and better than that. And the people who made it are bigger and better than that,” she added.

 

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The 26-year-old has an impressive back catalogue. She previously starred in Hawkeye, Midsommar, Little Women and will appear in the next instalment of Dune.

Styles also commented on the responses to the sex scenes he did in both Don’t Worry Darling and My Policeman.

“I think the most important thing in that stuff is trust. I think if you speak about it properly with everyone that’s involved [that helps],” he told talk show host Howard Stern.

“If at any point either one of you is uncomfortable, I think having the conversation where it’s like: ‘It doesn’t matter if they’re getting great stuff, if you don’t feel good, you tell me and we’ll stop.’”

Pugh is often outspoken about the way fans have discussed her body.

The actress was recently photographed wearing a sheer pink dress where her nipples were exposed as a contribution to the #freethenipple campaign.

“It isn’t the first time and certainly won’t be the last time a woman will hear what’s wrong with her body by a crowd of strangers, what’s worrying is just how vulgar some of you men can be,” she said via Instagram.

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