By Romeo San Vicente
Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell play master and servant
Fans of unintentionally homoerotic man-on-man-on-man action movies have something new to look forward to in early 2011. It's called "The Eagle" and it's from director Kevin Macdonald, acclaimed filmmaker responsible for the Oscar-winning "The Last King of Scotland." And even putting aside the fact that every major city in the United States features at least one leather bar named "The Eagle," this movie's first impression – thanks to a stone-faced trailer – is one of taking the sexy warrior vibe of "300" and running with it all the way to kinky territory. Channing plays a Roman Centurion on a mission to restore honor to the memory of his father. And Jamie Bell? He's Tatum's slave, a fact communicated with shirtless wrestling and shouted dialogue like, "You are still my slave!" and "Get down on your knees!" On second thought, that resemblance to similarly named gay bars might not be all that coincidental, after all. See for yourself when it opens in February.
Tilda Swinton, A-lister
Fans of the groovy, androgynous Tilda Swinton remember a time when she was an arthouse secret and starring in one queer-themed film after another from the late Derek Jarman. Well, two trips to Narnia and one Oscar win is all it took to clue in the rest of the world to the cool kid on the block and now she's the first choice of A-list directors everywhere. Evidence: she's co-starring in "Moon Rise Kingdom," the new film from Wes Anderson ("The Fantastic Mr. Fox"). True to Anderson's vintage aesthetic, the movie – about lovers on the run and the small town that sets out to hunt them down – is set in the 1960s, which means Swinton will no doubt be decked out in extra-mod outfits of the period. And she'll share the screen, and the Anderson-and-Roman-Coppola-penned script, with Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray and Frances McDormand. All of those people are not bad themselves.
Girls will be girls again
When it came out of nowhere a few years back, the demented drag comedy "Girls Will Be Girls" gave the gay indie film scene the shot of irreverent, incorrect humor it had misplaced on the road to queer rom-com suburbia.
Starring Clinton Leupp (better known as Coco Peru), Jeffery Roberson, Jack Plotnick, Varla Jean Merman and Evie Harris, the raucous, raunchy, day-glo outburst quickly earned rabid fans and a sizeable cult following. So will there be a sequel? Writer-director Richard Day hopes so, which is why he's currently working the Internet as a way to gather funding (Kickstarter pages, everyone's doing it). With a little money and all three "ladies" on board for more, it's only a matter of time and cruel shoestring budget decisions before gay audiences get what they deserve. Hurry up, "Girls," before you get any older.
Get out your handkerchiefs: 'Precious' is coming back
If the movie "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" didn't break your heart enough the first time and you were sitting around wondering when – WHEN?! – you'd get a chance to journey back to the slums of New York for another couple of hours of trauma, sexual abuse and tears with the girl everyone wanted to save from the hell of her own mother, then wonder no more. Sapphire's untitled sequel just sold to Penguin Publishing. Set nearly two decades into the future – aka the present, since both "Push" and "Precious" were '80s-bound – the novel will focus on Precious's son. He has somehow grown up (according to the press release) "alone, brutalized and with the soul of an artist." That press release better not have just spoiled the plot and given away the fate of sweet, HIV-positive, teen mom Precious. That would be awful. But expect movie rights to be dealt with in record time, all the same.
