Loading ...
Film Stew - In between working as an extras or location casting director on films such as The Road to Perdition, The Good Shepherd and the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean, Thomas Gustafson wrote and directed the 2003 musical short Fairies. This tale of a gay teenager bullied in high school who imagines a better version of his life while performing as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream has now, five years later, been remade by Gustafson into the feature-length film Were the World Mine. After winning the Best Narrative Feature Audience Award at the recent Florida Film Festival (March 28th – April 6th), Were the World Mine screens next this Friday, April 18th at the Nashville Film Festival. The storyline has been tweaked a little, as in this case gay high school student Timothy (Tanner Cohen) – while starring in the same Shakespeare play – discovers hidden within the script the recipe for the story’s magical purple-pansy love potion. Once he unleashes it on his small town, a very different version of the community begins to take shape. As in, much of the town turns gay. Co-starring alongside Cohen in the Chicago-shot film is Judy McClane (Broadway’s Mamma Mia!) as Timothy’s door-to-door cosmetics selling mom who, after Timothy comes out, must similarly out herself as the parent of a gay son. Others in the cast include Wendy Robie (Twin Peaks) and Jill Larson (Opal on All My Children). Fairies, which won a short film competition sponsored by the cable network LOGO, is currently available for purchase on iTunes. Meanwhile, Were the World Mine, which is booked all the way into the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, has on paper all the ingredients of a festival darling hit. Stay tuned… [Full Story]
