Vito, Randy, and Harvey.People remember Vito Russo because he wrote The Celluloid celluloid [from cellulose], transparent, colorless synthetic plastic made by treating cellulose nitrate with camphor and alcohol. Celluloid was the first important synthetic plastic and was widely used as a substitute for more expensive substances, such as Closet. I remember him because he was my best friend and the first gay activist I ever met. Everything I know about gay activism I learned from Vito. One day in 1982 or '83 he called me and said, "Are you aware of this amazing book by Randy Shilts Randy Shilts (August 8 1951 – February 17 1994) was a highly acclaimed, pioneering gay American journalist and author. He worked as a reporter for both The Advocate and the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as for San Francisco Bay Area television stations. called The, Mayor of Castro Street
Harvey Bernard Milk ." I took the book with me on a vacation to Hawaii, and I was glued to it from the moment I arrived at the hotel. By the time I finished it I was trembling trembling visible muscle tremor caused by fever, fear, weakness, electrolyte imbalance, especially hypocalcemia and hypomagnesemia, and neuromuscular disease. trembling disease and weeping. When I came home, I said to Vito, "This is the most amazing book I've ever read." And he said, "Don't you think it should be a movie?" A short time afterward Vito called again. He said, "You've got to see this documentary"--it was The Times of" Harvey Milk, which later won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. It was an amazing experience--actually getting to see the real Harvey Milk and the people in his life. It hit me like a bat to the face. I've never had such a powerful emotional experience seeing any film--ever. When it came out on videotape I bought lots of copies, and I would take it almost door-to-door--to friends, acquaintances, straight people, gay people--and I'd say, "Do you know about his documentary?" And if they hadn't seen it, I'd say, "If I give you this tape, will you promise me you'll watch it?" I have to confess: I judge people by their reaction to that film--if they don't cry, then I don't want to know them. I once showed the movie to a guy I was dating. He didn't cry, and I stopped dating him. Shortly after the film came out, I started working with Neil Meron as a producer out in Hollywood. I showed him all the materials on Harvey Milk, and he flipped out the way I had. So we contacted Randy Shilts and started a relationship with him. As brilliant as the documentary was, it did not contain Harvey's personal life--his lovers, his codependency, his friends. We knew we could portray that in a feature film of Randy's book. We sent Oliver Stone Noun 1. Oliver Stone - United States filmmaker (born in 1946) Stone the book and the documentary. He came back to us and said, "this is amazing. I have to do this movie." He committed to direct it, and we were going to produce it with his partner at the time, Janet Yang. We even had a deal in place for Robin Williams to play Harvey Milk. Then David Ehrenstein David Ehrenstein (born February 18, 1947, in New York City) is an American critic who focuses primarily on issues of homosexuality in cinema. His father was a secular Jew with Polish ancestors, and his mother was of African American and white Irish descenthttp://www.laweekly. wrote a story in The Advocate that said Oliver Stone's JFK was the most homophobic movie ever made in Hollywood. All of a sudden there were huge protests by gay people against Oliver. He called us one day, very sadly, and said, "You know what--I can't handle being attacked before I've even made a movie. If we're going to San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden to shoot The Mayor of Castro Street, it will disrupt the filming. I can't do this." And the whole thing fell apart. In 1994 we were with Randy right before he passed away. We told him, number 1, Neil and I will devote ourselves to getting this movie made. And number 2, if we saw that the movie was turning into something that he wouldn't be proud of, we would stop it. Many years have gone by since then. There have been times when people were interested in directing it who were the wrong directors, and we literally sabotaged the movie from getting made. But we've never given up hope. And in 2004 the movie seems as pertinent as ever, if not more so. Now at Warner Independent Pictures we finally have a home that's right for the film. And over the last decade or so almost every major star in Hollywood has come to us and said, "This is an incredible story. If this ever gets made, call me. I want to be in the film." So we know this could have the most stupendous stu·pen·dous adj. 1. Of astounding force, volume, degree, or excellence; marvelous. 2. Amazingly large or great; huge. See Synonyms at enormous. cast imaginable. We have great optimism that it will soon see the light of day. And when we make this film we're definitely going to dedicate it to both Vito Russo and Randy Shilts. It's their movie. We're doing it for them. Zadan is executive producer of the Oscar-winning film Chicago and ABC's It's All Relative It's All Relative is an ABC sitcom about a man who dates the adoptive daughter of a gay couple, which forces their very different families to learn to coexist. Overview . lie now gives out copies of The Times of Harvey Milk on DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. . For a longer version of this story, go to www.advocate.com. |
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