"American Gigolo 2"

[markydefad]

I heard on some entertainment news program (gawd knows which one--they all tend to blur after awhile) that writer/director Paul Schrader is planning a sequel to his 1980 hit. Now I enjoyed this film (Leonard Maltin rates it a BOMB), especially the Moroder music, the Armani clothes, and that great apartment.

The 2 interesting items that came with this announcement of a sequel were that Kevin Kline (NOT Richard Gere) is being wooed to star and that the hustler character, Julian, played by Gere, is NOW a homosexual!!!!!

Hmmm, I wonder if that's why Gere isn't doing it????!!!!

Remember that all the gay club scenes were filmed at Probe on Highland Avenue and that Schrader himself liked to take his shirt off and dance with the sweaty boys. Brave of him to admit this; he's now married to actress Mary Beth Hurt (the middle sister in Woody Allen's "Interiors").

_________________
Make My Feet Wanna Dance!

Markydefad

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: markydefad on 2002-08-16 22:03 ]</font>

[Jeff H]

So apparently after Kevin Kline came out he quit his job as a high school teacher and left town to become a high-priced hustler? It was that damn Diana Ross record, you know. :grin:

Marky, are you familiar with the play/musical in which Julian is the love child of Norma Desmond, and he grows up to be gay? Really, such a play does exist, but I can't remember the name or the playwright right now. (My Sunset Boulevard book is at the office.)

Maybe that's where the director got his idea for the sequel!

[markydefad]

No, Jeff, I never heard of that. Very interesting. Julian is the son of Norma Desmond & her Butler, Max????? Or Norma & Joe Gillis (William Holden). Or Norma and General Franco??? (Who is STILL dead, BTW--though an impersonator is using his name and defiling his memory). :razz:

[Jeff H]

Marky (and anyone else who might care!)--

I was mistaken; it wasn't a play I was thinking of but a novel titled "Suspects" by David Thompson.

In the book, Julian is the son of Norma and Joe, born to Norma in the hospital of an insane asylum in 1951 and raised by Max.

What are the chances the kid WOULDN'T turn out to be gay?!! :grin:

[Nano]

I also liked "American Gigolo", for me at least visually it was the first American film of the Eighties. BTW, a good deal of the photography and design was based in Bernardo Bertolucci's "The comformist", a film with a gay theme. (Ferdinando Scarfiotti, "Conformist"'s designer, was imported to do the same duty on "Gigolo").
I don't remember that gay club scenes Marky talks about... Anyway, according to a Peter Biskind interview on Schrader he was doing plenty of drugs at the time. But he never talks about going to "the wild side"... He even claims having had an affair with Nastassia Kinski during the making of "Cat people" (another film full of drugs!). Was this true, or it's just another sign of envy to Roman Polanski?
Biskind says that on the final days of production, Schrader offered marriage both to Kinski and to another girl he was seeing on those days. Then he told his secretary: "the one who answers first, that I'll marry". The staffer resigned to the job hours later! (Now that's a rock'n roll behavior for a writer... or was this just made-up?)
About the possible Gigolo 2, Kevin Kline seems to be a bit old for the part. Or is it a "Color of money"-type sequel?

[markydefad]

Well. Nano...

I guess the sequel is set NOW --22 years later than the original--so Julian would be approaching 50, I guess. The Probe scenes revolved around Julian going to a club...some black hustler was there... something about Gere NOT wanting to turn a gay trick....I just know the exact stairway they filmed in...since I used to hang around Probe after I moved to LA. UNTIL the music drove me away... "TWO OF HEARTS...TWO OF HEARTS...TWO OF HEARTS".......TWO OF HEARTS"!!!!!

Get the picture?

Say "Yes, we see". :lol:

Now, I think Schrader did admit he flirted with bi-sexuality at some point (he WAS NOT very handsome)...BUT I know he did say he took drugs and danced at Probe with all the sweaty boys with their shirts off. He said he LOVED it. I always admired that candor. Can you imagine Spielberg or Scorsese (Schrader wrote "Taxi Driver") doing the same??? Hmmmmm??? OK, MAYBE... Oliver Stone!!!! :razz:

[Jeff H]

But Marky, wouldn't "Two of Hearts" now seem like a symphony sent from dance music heaven compared to what's probably being played there these days?!