Garth Franklin of Dark Horizons said something interesting to me last week when he was visiting New York City: “Playing gay is the new playing crippled,” when it comes to awards. I think that Garth might well be right, but does that mean a remake of Bowfinger would have Kit looking to play Buck the retarded gay wonder slave?
If playing gay in the post-Brokeback Hollywood is a way to get recognition, whoever stars in The Dreyfus Affair: A Love Story may find themselves bathing in Oscar gold. While it’s nice to imagine that the film would be a gay take on the French scandal from a century or so ago (shoutout to my history nerds!), it’s actually the title of a novel about a gay baseball romance. A married shortstop falls in love with his team’s second baseman during a heated pennant race, and when the affair is outed a shitstorm of scandal erupts.
The film will be based on Peter Lefcourt’s The Dreyfuss Affair: A Love Story. Lefcourt himself is working on the script, and he must be a better man than me, since I can’t imagine not taking the opportunity to make the lovers play the positions of pitcher and catcher.
The book has been floating around the option pool since 92, with it having been set up at Disney and New Line in the past. Once upon a time Ben Affleck and Don Cheadle were in talks to star, and wouldn’t that have been one heckuva film. Producer Andrew Lang has picked up the book’s option, and I imagine we’ll see some serious movement on the film in the coming weeks.