By Romeo San Vicente
Jude Law visits 'Brideshead'
Jude Law never disappoints in fulfilling the prurient interests of his gay male fans. After appearing as rough trade in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" and as the beautiful Bosie in "Wilde," it's no wonder he has a queer following. That following will be happy to know that he'll be playing Sebastian Flyte in the film remake of "Brideshead Revisited." Based on Evelyn Waugh's novel and made into a 1981 miniseries, "Brideshead" is the story of Charles Ryder (to be played in the film by "A Beautiful Mind"'s Paul Bettany), an aspiring painter in the 1920s who becomes involved with both the aristocratic, beautiful Julia Flyte (Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly, who's married to Bettany in real life) and her gay brother, Sebastian. The film begins shooting this fall. Lustful anglophiles, start your engines.
'Fight Club' joins glee club?
Can it be true? Is it possible that the least likely candidate for transformation into a big-budget Broadway musical, "Fight Club," may actually wind up on The Great White Way? The answer is a solid "maybe." Author Chuck Palahniuk is in the talking stage with various Broadway players who want to turn the anarchic, anticonsumerist, and pervasively homoerotic novel and film into a tourist-friendly (or possibly unfriendly) show with lots of singing and dancing. The story of an unhappy corporate drone who befriends a terrorist renegade and joins a secret fighting club may not seem like a good fit for shiny, happy Broadway. But if a John Waters movie or an allegorical show about urine can make it there, maybe Palahniuk's bruisers-in-love can, too.
Lindsay Lohan spreads 'Gossip'
It's Lindsay Lohan's moment. The young star is signing on to films faster than she can blow out the 18 candles on her birthday cake, and her latest project might be her coolest yet. "Gossip Girl," in development at Warner Bros., is based on the series of young adult novels by Cecily von Ziegesar, and Lohan is ready to take on the lead. Following the urban adventures of Blair Waldorf, a beautiful girl with a jet-setting gay father who lives on Manhattan's elite Upper East Side, "Gossip Girl"'s world is one of rich-girl rivalry and verbal backstabbing. All of which makes it a perfect fit for screenwriter Amy Sherman-Palladino, a woman who's proven her ability to write quick-witted, female-centric dialogue for her TV creation, "Gilmore Girls." Look for "Gossip" to flounce into theaters in 2005.
From 'Dawson's Creek' to 'Backwater'
Gay screenwriting success story Kevin Williamson is getting back to his "Scream" roots with a vengeance. The film "Cursed" is back on track, with a quirky cast that includes Scott Baio and "Arrested Development"'s hot lesbian pin-up Portia De Rossi. Now a murder-revenge tale called "Retribution," about a woman who stalks her boyfriend's killer, has also been announced. Finally, add the film "Backwater"to Williamson's slate of projects. Based on a never-developed idea for a video game, "Backwater" is a thriller set on the bayous of Louisiana, where a serial killer is running loose in the murky dark. Think "Blair Witch" with a side of deep-fried catfish. No casting news yet, but the scary swamp story should begin shooting this fall, with "Retribution" to follow sometime in the not-too-distant future.
