Film Bits: Disney Announces First Gay Character; In ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ the Shark Jumps You

‘Beauty and the Beast’ to Feature First Gay Disney Character

gaston and lefou

Disney has announced that their live action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast will feature their first ever openly gay character. According to director Bill Condon, Gaston (Luke Evans) sidekick LeFou (Josh Gad) will have a small subplot that finds him question his feelings for the villain. “He’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realizing that he has these feelings. And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it. And that’s what has its payoff at the end, which I don’t want to give away. But it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.” Disney has long been a gay friendly brand, being one of the first companies to extend benefits to employees in same sex relationships in addition to hosting gay days at their theme parks. It makes sense for them to represent the gay community in this way, though many are rankled by the admission. Honestly, it’s an interesting perspective on the character of LeFou, and just proves how much effort Disney puts into making their live action adaptations different experiences from their original animated classics.

(Attitude)

‘Spotlight’ Screenwriter Tapped for ‘Winnie the Pooh’

In other Disney news, the live action Winnie the Pooh movie hired Oscar award winning screenwriter Tom McCarthy (Spotlight) to rewrite the script from Alex Ross Perry (Queen of Earth). Directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland) the nooh-Pooh is said to focus on an adult Christopher Robin, the child from A.A. Milne’s classic books, as a workaholic and neglectful father, until Pooh comes back into his life. This is ridiculous enough to work. The credibility around this film isn’t unlike last year’s Pete’s Dragon, which found Disney tapping an indie director to re-envision the premise of the classic story. Done right, this could be an interesting take on a familiar story, opening up new avenues of storytelling for the classic.

(Variety)

Red Band ‘CHIPS’ Trailer Brings the Nasty

chips

In “Why Bother” news, they’re still releasing a CHIPS movie. The new red band (read: NSFW) trailer takes deeper inside the world of new Ponch (Michael Pena) and new Baker (Dax Shepard), only this time with cursing. Irreverent remakes are hit or miss, and this looks about as irreverent as you can get. This time out, Ponch is an undercover FBI agent looing to suss out corruption within the California Highway Patrol while Baker is a hapless rookie who can ride a motorcycle well, and that’s about it. Not looking that great, but judge for yourself in the trailer below. CHIPS opens March 24.

(Warner Brothers)

‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ Reaches Peak Insanity in New ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’ Trailer

dead-men-tell-no-tales

Pirates of the Caribbean unveiled the latest trailer for Dead Men Tell No Tales, promising that this, the franchise’s fifth movie, will be the final adventure in the fantasy pirate adventure series. The trailer gives us a glimpse at a CGI de-aged Johnny Depp and also a zombie shark, which I think I’m entirely all about on general principle. It looks kind of pointless, but so did the previous four movies, and as out there as they got, they were always kind of fun. More of the same seems to be working, and that’s definitely what they’re giving us with this. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Me Tell No Tales opens May 26.

(Disney)

Related Content

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

New to Glide

Keep up-to-date with Glide

Twitter