Milk

[MacGuffin]

Van Sant's Milk Starts Filming in January
Source: Focus Features

Academy Award-nominated director Gus Van Sant will commence production in January on the biographical drama Milk, to star Academy Award winner Sean Penn as gay-rights icon Harvey Milk. Milk will be produced by Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, the Academy Award-winning producers of American Beauty, through The Jinks/Cohen Company. Milk is being co-financed by Groundswell Productions and Focus Features, and distributed worldwide by Focus. The announcement was made today by Focus CEO James Schamus and Groundswell CEO Michael London.

London will also serve in a producing capacity on the film. Milk is being executive-produced by Bruna Papandrea of Groundswell; William Horberg; and Dustin Lance Black ("Big Love"), who wrote the original screenplay.

Harvey Milk (1930-1978) was an activist and politician, and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in America; in 1977, he was voted to the city supervisors' board of San Francisco. The following year, both he and the city's mayor George Moscone were shot to death by another city supervisor, Dan White. Mr. Milk was previously the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary feature The Times of Harvey Milk (1984), directed by Rob Epstein and produced by Richard Schmiechen. Milk will be the first non-documentary feature to explore the man's life and career.

Schamus said, "Gus Van Sant is the perfect artist to bring to the screen the extraordinary story of Harvey Milk, and we couldn't be more thrilled to join our partners at Groundswell in helping make this dream project a reality."

London added, "The Focus team is the best in the business when it comes to provocative, socially relevant movies with world-class talent like Gus Van Sant and Sean Penn. We're thrilled that they share our passion for telling the story of Harvey Milk."

Jinks and Cohen commented, "We couldn't be more proud to be working with Gus Van Sant and Sean Penn in bringing this important and moving story to the screen."

Focus Features International will handle overseas sales for the movie. David Gerson, Focus vice president of production and development, is supervising Milk for president of production John Lyons.

Bill Groom, whose previous credits include The Pledge (directed by Penn), will be the production designer on Milk. Harris Savides, in his fifth feature collaboration with Van Sant, will be the cinematographer on the film.

[MacGuffin]

Hirsch, Franco, Brolin got 'Milk'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch and James Franco are in final negotiations to appear opposite Sean Penn in Gus Van Sant's biopic "Milk."

The Focus Features/Groundswell Prods. film stars Penn as Harvey Milk, the country's first openly gay elected official, a San Francisco city supervisor who was assassinated in 1978.

Brolin will play Dan White, the rival politician and supervisor who shot Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone to death at City Hall. Hirsch has been cast as gay rights activist Cleve Jones, an intern and close ally of Milk's, who went on to found the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Franco will play Scott Smith, Milk's lover and campaign manager.

Focus is co-financing "Milk" with Michael London's Groundswell and will distribute it worldwide. Principal photography is set to begin in January in San Francisco. London, Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen are producing from Dustin Lance Black's screenplay.

[MacGuffin]

Diego Luna's Got Milk
Source: ComingSoon

Entertainment Weekly has learned that Mexican actor Diego Luna (Y tu mamá también has joined the cast of director Gus Van Sant's Untitled Harvey Milk Project. Harvey Milk, to be played by Sean Penn, was an activist and politician, and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in America.

Luna is playing Jack Lira, one of Milk's supporters as well as his lover. He joins a cast that also includes Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, James Franco, Victor Garber, Denis O'Hare, and Stephen Spinella.

Milk was voted to San Francisco's city supervisors' board in 1977. The following year, both he and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by another city supervisor, Dan White.

[MacGuffin]

"Milk" biopic brings '70s vibe to San Francisco
Source: Hollywood Reporter

If you happen to be doing a little shopping on Castro Street in San Francisco and notice that the stores seem to be a bit more psychedelic than usual, fear not. You're not having an acid flashback or entering a time warp; you're on the set of "Milk."

In mid-January Gus Van Sant began shooting his biopic about America's first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk, a San Francisco supervisor who was assassinated in 1978 along with Mayor George Moscone by recently resigned San Francisco Supervisor Dan White. Sean Penn is playing Milk, and Josh Brolin plays White in the Focus Features/Groundswell production.

Milk operated a camera store on Castro Street and was known as the Mayor of Castro Street, a roughly two-block shopping district in the San Francisco neighborhood of the same name. The production has taken over the area, turning back the clock to represent the years of the 1970s, when the Castro shifted from being a hippie hangout to a gay mecca. The production has meticulously re-created signs from the area, and even the garbage cans are from the time period.

"We've done an enormous amount of research to ensure that we are only going to have a sign for a business that was open in the year the scene takes place," said Dan Jinks, one of the film's producers.

REAL DEAL

The production hunkered down in San Francisco's Gay and Lesbian Archives and talked to plenty of people from Milk's world. They even hired a former employee from Milk's camera store, Daniel Nicoletta, as a consultant; he not only worked with Milk but also took "tons" of photographs of the activist and the neighborhood.

One of the project's biggest coups is that it's shooting in Milk's actual camera store. The storefront is now a gift shop, so the production had to buy the place out for a couple of months in order to transform it to a '70s-era business, under the watchful eye of production designer Bill Groom.

That would have been impossible had the film kept its original start date of November 2007, because the shop would not have wanted to give up holiday sales. But now, in what is the slowest part of the retail season, the store's owners were more amenable.

While declining comment on the cost of taking over the store, producer Bruce Cohen said the transaction was about "finding that balance of something that (the owners) are happy with and works in our budget. It has some value to them that the movie is shot there, both commercial and historic."

In fact, adding value to the neighborhood was one reason that the local business association received the production with open arms.

At first, Van Sant wasn't keen on shooting in the Castro, thinking it was too retail-intensive. But the more he scouted, the more he saw how unique the area was, a little valley of shops with hills around it.

"There's not a good way to cheat that," location manager Jonathan Sheer said. "The more Gus scouted, the more he realized that the weight of the historical nature of it was mandating him to do it in the real place."

The production team met the business association and outlined their plan during a town hall meeting at the historic Castro Theatre. Both sides agreed that the film would remind people of Milk's importance, give the area a commercial boost and make the district more of a tourist attraction. In the end, almost all of the stores agreed to the shoot.

NEIGHBORHOOD BOOST

"People will want to come here and say, 'Not only is this where Harvey was a figure, but this is where they shot the movie,"' Jinks said. "We're hoping that our movie is ultimately going to be a great thing for the neighborhood."

"Milk" already is having an effect. Some who lived through the '70s are having their emotions swirled up at the sight of the old stores and bars. There also is something more permanent, too: a facelift to the Castro Theatre.

The movie palace, the gem of the neighborhood, was looking run-down. The production partnered with the business association and the theater's owners to cobble together the funds to repaint the facade and redo the neon marquee, among other improvements.

"There's very few chances in our business where we have a chance to make a positive change," Sheer said. "But it's nice to know that when we leave here, we're going to leave something that's had a lasting impact."

In the coming weeks, the shoot will move to City Hall, where current Mayor Gavin Newsom invited the production to shoot in the exact location where Moscone (played by Victor Garber) was shot. White's office, where Milk was shot, will be re-created in another locale because the original offices have changed over time. The new location still will have a view of the San Francisco Opera House, replicating the view that Milk, an opera fan, enjoyed before he died.

[w/o horse]

The second half of this double bill (that I am planning for the future on the corner of My and Imagination) is The Times of Harvey Milk.  Which I wish they'd unabashedly mention more often when discussing this new fiction work because that's a great documentary.  The beginning is an impromptu press conference directly following his assassination, and there's this horrified official on the podium, flash bulbs are going off and the atmosphere is palpably catastrophic, and she's announcing the murders, and then there's these gasps. . .it's genuinely chilling.  The story is heart destroying too.  I think most people know it as the Twinkie Defense trial.

From what they're saying it sounds like the film is going to cover different, more intimate territory.  Lots of potential here.

[Gamblour.]

TRAILER:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/milk/hd/

Man, that trailer is AWESOME. I had no idea what to expect from the film, but damn. Very well edited, pie in the face was funny/bizarre placement. Font is wonderful. Josh Brolin looks great, seems to be a huge prick. Didn't recognize Emile Hirsch. Very excited suddenly.

[©brad]

yeah, um, WOW. gus is getting it done.

[JG]

its going to be a good month for brolin.

[picolas]

YES! Paranoid Park was just a phase. i love that shot of him walking up the white stairs. so simple and joyful. the editing in general is perfect. i'm going to try not to watch this a bunch of times.. pretty damn spoilerful.

[cinemanarchist]

Probably the best trailer of the year thus far. I'm intrigued by the fact that Danny Elfman is handling the score. The summer movies were pretty great this year but I'm so happy it's almost fall.

[Kal]

amazing trailer and fantastic cast!! looking forward to it!!

sean penn looks really weird

[Ghostboy]

I can't get enough of that typeface!

[Fernando]

If Heath's joker is almost a lock for a supporting nom., I predict Sean will be for best actor.

This is now in my most anticipated top three fall/winter list.

- Benji bottom
- the road
- milk

[cinemanarchist]

If Heath's joker is almost a lock for a supporting nom., I predict Sean will be for best actor.

This is now in my most anticipated top three fall/winter list.

- Benji bottom
- the road
- milk

That sounds fiercely erotic!!

[MacGuffin]

Sean Penn's new gay drama avoiding publicity

The opening of "Milk," director Gus Van Sant's account of California's first openly gay politician, is four weeks away. Yet you wouldn't know it.

Unlike the hoopla over Focus Features' previous gay-themed awards magnet, "Brokeback Mountain," which was drawing calls of agenda-pushing from right-wingers months before it opened in 2005, there's been hardly a peep in editorial pages or on talk radio.

Admittedly, the election is a major distraction. But Focus also is doing something deliberate: It's eschewing publicity for the Sean Penn vehicle, keeping it out of the high-profile fall film festivals and heavily restricting media screenings.

"The best way to help this film win over a mainstream audience is to avoid partisanship, and the best way to avoid partisanship is to let people find out about the film from the film itself," said one person involved with the film.

Giving up word-of-mouth to avoid hot air is not a typical trade-off -- notice how Lionsgate effectively flogged politically charged movies like Oliver Stone's George W. Bush biopic "W." and the Bill Maher documentary "Religulous" -- but it's one Focus is willing to make.

Not that it will last. The political football will be kicked off when the movie premieres Tuesday night in San Francisco and then put in play after the November 4 election. And when that happens, the studio will face a marketing dilemma: how to accommodate the gay-rights angle the core audience expects while appealing to mainstream filmgoers who might not be immediately moved to see a movie about the subject.

One example of those filmgoers: At a recent Vegas test-screening for a middle-class, straight audience, several senior citizens tried to leave after a gay love scene in the early moments but couldn't because they were trapped in the middle of a row (near Focus production chief John Lyons, in fact). The seniors eventually said they were happy that they stayed, but, like independent voters in an election contest, these are the viewers Focus must woo.

Like its initial phase of playing keep-away from cable news, the post-election phase will also involve staying above politics. Focus plans on selling "Milk" in part as a story of hope and change (Harvey Milk, a member of San Francisco's Board of Superviors until his assassination in 1978, won equal-rights battles against great odds), just as it sold "Brokeback" as a love story.

The ploy was logical with "Brokeback." It's less so here.

Like "Brokeback," "Milk" features a gay romance. But unlike "Brokeback," "Milk" is made by gay filmmakers, features the polarizing Penn and puts itself squarely in a political context. Milk's fight against California's anti-gay-rights Proposition 6 -- a drama the movie deals with in great detail -- spookily parallels the current California fight over Proposition 8, a measure that would ban gay marriage.

Neil Giuliano, president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said that "since this movie is about a beloved politician who was killed, it won't be easy for our adversaries to fight us on it." Focus and its Oscar handlers should get the weaponry ready anyway.