Movies take a long time to get off the ground. This we all now. Gus Van Sant’s biopic of the first openly gay city supervisor of San Francisco, California, Harvey Milk, was something he had in the works as far back as 1998.
In an interview with Interview magazine between, “Milk” star James Franco and the director Van Sant, the two discuss the original incarnation of the biopic. While Sean Penn was always the filmmaker’s first choice for playing the slain supervising politician, at the time, he had other ideas. For Dan White (the man who assassinated Milk, now being played by Josh Brolin) he wanted Tom Cruise and actually called him up to try and get him for the role. He also wanted River Phoenix to play Cleve Jones (an associate of Milk’s who conceived of the AIDS quilt; the role that Emile Hirsch is now playing).
Van Sant had also wanted to do an Andy Warhol biopic with Phoenix at one point too (“River kind of looked like him in his younger days, but that project never really went forward.”).
The duo also get on the topic of Zac Efron (apparently a good dude) and Franco suggests (jokes?) that Van Sant should direct a Judd Apatow comedy with he and Efron. What would be the chances of that, huh? Probably pretty slim knowing Van Sant’s career trajectory (arty and then Oscar and then nothing in between).
Meanwhile, a friend of Jeffrey Wells’ saw “Milk” in L.A. and said it’s as “phenomenal” as the trailer. I guess one word is better than the fuller description we had a month ago. 😉
Rodrigo Perez is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Playlist, which he launched in 2008. He has worked in entertainment journalism since 2000, including at MTV, and has written for SPIN, IndieWire, Pitchfork, Complex, Magnet, and various music, film, and entertainment publications over the past two decades.
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