George Mackay Six Times

Well here's a nice distraction. Filmmaker Xavier Dolan photographed actor George Mackay for a new Gucci campaign! And I have the photos! That one above is going right onto the vision-board but they're all hotness so hit the jump and singe yourselves...

Quote of the Day

"[At that time,] I had started to think about this project I had shelved right before the pandemic. It’s a genre film set in late 19th century France, but it feels like the most personal story I could tell in my life right now. The original source material is a short story, but I’m going to say that 80% will be completely made up. Writing it, I’m avid. I’m really excited. It’s playful and [the dialogue has] a lot of humour; the language that these people of literary society – or Les Lumières – were speaking in at the time. I’m drawing, painting – every shot is already described. I even went to the textile merchant the other day to buy fabric for the costumes. I aim to be shooting this in the summer or fall of 2025, which means it’ll be released in 2026. That would mean that it will have been eight years since the shoot of Matthias & Maxime – the span of the first chapter of my career. Eight years of making films, and eight years of not making any. I love that symmetry. "

Good news that Xavier Dolan is quitting his self-imposed "retirement" and getting to work on another movie -- I put retirement in quotes because he made a whole TV series during said retirement (and was about to start another one for HBO) but as fondly as he speaks of The Night Logan Woke Up he seems to not count it since it wasn't a movie. Indeed in this chat at i-D magazine he says a lot of self-indulgent nonsense but that's our Xavier; it's why we love him. (Or many have the exact opposite reaction.) Indeed the entire interview is about how one of his comments got blown up and ruined him -- and yet in the next breath he says he made that TV show and was about to make another one for HBO, so! His ruination isn't quite like everyone else's would be, it seems. All that aside we're happy he's going to make more movies and we're also happy he did another bratty-hot photoshoot (ahh to the real reason we care) and here is that, after the jump...

Niels Schneider Eight Times

I am officially convinced as of today that somebody who works at Behind the Blinds magazine reads MNPP because if this photoshoot of French beauty Niels Schneider (via) isn't directly Me Bait then I don't know what. I don't know what! Well, theyb got me. The pretty French boy shirtless and smoking got me. And speaking of -- everybody congratulate Niels because he now officially has his own tag here on the site. Shocked it took me this long seeing as how he was stunning me fifteen years ago in Xavier Dolan's first movies, but better now than never. Anyway the rest of this shoot -- which I will warn you up front isn't as much of a thrill as these two photos seen here up top; too many baggy clothes dammit! -- is after the jump, so jump on 'em...

Longlegs in 350 Words or Less

I haven't quite gotten a handle on what it is I feel is missing from writer-director (and son of Anthony) Oz Perkins' movies, but something is missing from Oz Perkins' movies. Something that's keeping them from being the classics they get awful close to being for me. He feels like the horror version of Xavier Dolan -- infintesimally close to being just right, but there is some little spark that's missing that stops the chain reaction from domino'ing into its big boom. All four of his movies -- The Blackcoat's Daughter, I am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, Gretel & Hansel, and now this weekend Longlegs -- fit this description to a tee for me. I like all four of them. They all have great mood and killer atsmophere and some memorable performances. This certainly isn't a record to scoff at -- he's somebody to be appreciated, and I keep going into his films thinking this will be the one. But they keep not being the one. 

Longlegs has all the good stuff, but it's just missing that spark again that makes it feel singular. It's not even (entirely) the Nicolas Cage factor -- you might know I'm not a huge fan of Cage, especially when he goes big, and he is certainly going very big here. But the film keeps him at bay for most of it, yanking back his effortful chomping like a rabid dog on a chain. While the film's using him judiciously it's good and effective. It does finally let the dog off its chain and I groaned some, but I don't place my issues with Longlegs squarely on that. To be honest this is a brief review because I haven't entirely nailed down my issues -- I'll see the film again once it's out on streaming and perhaps have more to say then. I just very much want people to temper their expectations. The comparisons to The Silence of the Lambs are thuddingly obvious while also doing Longlegs no favors at all. It's fine. It ain't no Silence of the Lambs.

Mommy Turns 10

According to Xavier Dolan on his Insta his film Mommy premiered at Cannes ten years ago today, and he used the ocassion to announce that he's releasing a fancy photography book of photos from the making of the movie! It's called A Friendship Through Film and all of the photos were taken by Dolan's good friend Shayne Laverdière, who he asked to be the set photographer for the movie years into their friendship -- you can pre-order the book right here. It will be released in October. Mommy isn't my personal favorite of Dolan's movies -- that will probably at this point always be Tom at the Farm -- but it's probably the one most representative of his obsessions. 

Good Morning, Gratuitous Pier-Gabriel Lajoie

Far far far too long since I've checked in on Quebecois actor and model Pier-Gabriel Lajoie, who co-starred in my favorite Bruce La Bruce movie Gerontophilia way back in 2013 -- how is that movie about to be a decade old already??? Anyway it's not really my fault as Lajoie hasn't really done a lot of acting in that time, and none of it was in anything that made its way south of the border as far as I can recognize off of IMDb. But that's about to change as he's in the new thing from Xavier Dolan!

(Took ya long enough, Xav.) It's not a movie, though -- Dolan's made himself a fancy five-episode prestige series, he has. Described as a Hitchcockian psychological thriller and based on a play by the writer Marc Brouchard, who also wrote the basis of Dolan's film Tom at the Farm (aka my favorite thing Dolan's ever done) the series is titled, deep breath, The Night Where Laurier Gaudreault Woke Up, and it stars Dolan himself as well as Julie Le Breton and Patrick Hivon...

... the latter of whom recently caught my eye in the flick Babysitter -- a movie I couldn't stand, but he caught my eye anyway -- which happened to be directed by and starred Monia Chokri, who was the star of a couple of Dolan's earlier films (Heartbeats and Laurence Anyways, that is). Who'd have thought the Quebecois Film Industry so incestuous, har har. Anyway the series will be premiering on Canal+ in January so we'll have to wait and see when the U.S. gets it, but there is now a trailer!

I'm not even sure if I noticed Pier-Gabriel in there? The series is set in two different time periods (in the 1990s and in 2019) and he's apparently in the flashback portion; he's also only in a single episode, so who knows how much. But seeing his name in the cast-list brought me joy anyway, and I'm sure Dolan will play up his prettiness when he's got him in front of his lens at least; Xavier is very good at that. Until then though I went and gathered up some photos of Pier-Gabriel that have never been posted here, and that's how we will spend this morning! Hit the jump and enjoy...

Good Morning, World

They couldn't have had Vincent Lacoste here sitting in a fluffy white robe at a messy breakfast table with a cigarette and picking at a croissant among the photos for this Celine campaign (via) so 1) it would have somehow managed to be a whisper French-ier than it always is, and it is a lot, and 2) I would've had a more appropriate "Good Morning" photo to share this morning? I'm still using these photos because they were the first thing I saw this morning and I will love Vincent my entire life thanks to Christophe Honoré's 2018 movie Sorry Angel (how is that movie, reviewed here, already four years old?) and they did put him in front of bookshelves. Also...

... I do actually have Vincent stuff to share else-wise, specifically that trailer for Lost Illusions above, his new movie. It won seven César awards last year (including Best Film and Best Supporting Actor for Vincent!) while it was nominated for eight more (including one for Xavier Dolan, also for Best Supporting Actor) and I have already spoken of it once here when it played my beloved "Rendez-vous With French Cinema" fest in February. I didn't manage to see it there, I don't recall why (I think they didn't have a link and I wasn't going to public screenings right then), but I'm going to see it this week because it's getting a proper U.S. release now! As well a movie with that much pedigree oughta. It's opening on June 10th here in NYC and then the following week in L.A. and then, presumably, outward from there. Seems like one to keep an eye out for! For now though let's keep our eyes trained on our boy Vincent, after the jump...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Heartbeats (2010)

Nicolas: Eating your cherry, Terry?

Francis: Cherries are too sweet.

Marie: Fudge is 17 times sweeter than cherries.

A happy 35 to the gorgeous and talented French actor Niels Schneider today, who first got scooped up by Xavier Dolan via this and his earlier film I Killed My Mother, and who has since gone on a quite fine career. We last saw him at NYFF in 2019's Sibyl opposite the queen Virginie Efira (the first place she caught our eye before blowing our eyes out of our heads in Paul Verhoeven's Benedetta) -- if y'all haven't seen Sibyl yet y'all need to. (I reviewed it right here.) Anyway as for Niels he's only gotten more impossibly handsome with time, check all of our posts on him at this link -- I think he's in this thing for the long haul. (Something something, get in this thing for the long haul, something.) And sidenote I very much need to rewatch Heartbeats! It's been a decade at least. I should totally have myself a little Dolan-a-thon, shouldn't I...

Quote of the Day

"There are a lot of Quebecois films and shows that made me fall in love with acting. I think Xavier Dolan’s films, which I watched when I was younger, made me fall in love with movies and acting in general."

-- That quote comes from actor Théodore Pellerin talking to Netflix's Queue magazine, and if the rumors are true about Pellerin possibly being romantically linked with actor Francois Arnaud, who memorably co-starred in Xavier Dolan's film I Killed My Mother that he grew up watching and loving, well -- good for Theo! I just sit here and blog about lusting for all of these actors but he actually went out there and made it happen. Kudos, really. (Also I would just like to add that  Francois has had Oliver Jackson-Cohen showing up on his social media a lot lately and... the mind boggles.)

Further fuel for my Théodore Pellerin / François Arnaud romantic entangling red-string board of clues and conspiracies pic.twitter.com/1lhXZhHH79

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) November 1, 2021

Pic of the Day

Thanks to MNPP reader and pal Boyd for shooting us this photo -- Quebecois actor and delightful weirdo Théodore Pellerin is starring in a play in Montreal called Embrasse next month, and one of the promotional images has him reenacting the famous nude pose of the designer Yves Saint Laurent -- this is how you get audiences to go see your plays, people. According to our pal Boyd (I don't know French so the website's indecipherable to me) the play was written by Michel Marc Bouchard, who wrote Xavier Dolan's best film Tom at the Farm, and is about a young man who dreams of being a fashion designer. (The Dolan connection is interesting given the rumors that Pellerin is dating former Dolan star François Arnaud.)

Okay so I’ve become slightly obsessed with this rumor that Arnaud & Pellerin are an item (and it’s been repeated by another source since) and now today their Instagram posts really seem to have them in the same place! Could it actually be??? pic.twitter.com/Ln869KQj2I

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) July 29, 2021

(That rumor is my current Quebecois obsession.) Anyway it looks like the fine folks at Netflix have also discovered Pellerin, who first caught MNPP's eye thanks to his stellar turn in the cruelly brief single season of the series On Becoming a God In Central Florida (RIP to my beautiful baby) -- Pellerin had been around for a minute before that series, I know some of you were familiar with some of his earlier work, but I was not. Then he was in several things all of a sudden -- the two films Boy Erased and Never Rarely Sometimes Always foremost -- and we were quick finding ourselves smitten. Well Netflix did too it seems, as he's in two big projects for them right now (neither of which I've seen yet) -- the series Maid with Margaret Qualley and her mom that Andie Macdowell person, and the fright film There's Someone Inside Your House, which just premiered today. Let's hope this is just the start of a beautiful friendship!

Théodore Pellerin understands the sexy bad boy assignment in Netflix's #TheresSomeoneInsideYourHouse: https://t.co/RURQI1Jn3D pic.twitter.com/j71323q7cZ

— Decider (@decider) October 6, 2021

Take a Bite Outta Nicky

Universal might have embarrassed themselves a few years back with their original concept of a so-called "shared Monsters universe" after Tom Cruise's Mummy movie bit the big one, but after the success of Elisabeth Moss and The Invisible Man movie they've been working at rebooting the concept -- Leigh Whannell, who helmed that Invisible Man, is currently working on a Wolfman film with Ryan Gosling, and the great Karyn Kusama is making yet another Dracula flick. (Also Paul Feig has talked about a Bride idea!) Well today comes word that the character of Renfield from Dracula is getting his very own film, and it will star the gorgeous and perfect Nicholas Hoult in the lead. This ain't yo momma's Tom Waits!

It's been a very long time since I've read Bram Stoker's book so I don't remember how Renfield, the man driven mad with obsequience to his vampire master, is described therein, but it's not like anybody has paid any attention to "the text" in a century as far as this particular tale goes... point being sure, make Renfield a hot piece, why not? I just hope they follow through on the homoerotic implications here -- that Count Dracula choosing a slave boy as beautiful as Nicky has... connotations, ones that would be best followed through here in the year of our Dark Lord 2021. That said the super straight crew making this project -- Chris McKay of the Lego movies, from a story by Walking Dead comics-creator Robert Kirkman -- doesn't give me a lotta hope on that front Dammit, Renfield should be kinda gay. Or really really gay. Like, really. I mean give this movie to Xavier Dolan -- I wanna see that.

Good Morning, World

Attitude magazine has Russell Tovey on its cover this month -- all splattered with paint all the better to make me think of the gay sex scene from Xavier Dolan's movie I Killed My Mother -- and he's probably talking his art podcast (hence the paint) but we don't know yet since they only dropped a little snippet of the interview on their site and it's about, what else, being gay. Well how being gay affects one's creativity, so on. Anyway I'd been tweeting out the photoshoot bit by bit over this week but it kept coming and so I decided to gather it in one place, and I have done that! After the jump...

French Boys & The Movies That Love Them

The line-up for one of my favorite yearly fests has arrived today -- the "Rendez-Vous With French Cinema" festival at Film at Lincoln Center arrives for ten straight days of Gallic bliss in March, the 4th through the 14th, and it's an astonishingly sexy line-up of 18 movies this year (not that we'd expect any less from the French), starting from the top down with the legendary sexpot Emmanuelle Béart as the fest's Guest of Honor. For one they'll be screening Francois Ozon's sweaty and super-gay Summer of 85 (which I reviewed for NewFest last fall right here), which just got nominated for a heap of César awards (aka France's Oscars). But more than ever I felt like looking through this year's line-up there's an absolutely stunning French actor in every single one, so let's pick our picks, that way!

Vincent Lacoste in Faithful -- Lacoste first popped onto our radar with Christophe Honore's heartbreaking 2018 romance Sorry Angel, which has already become one of our all-time favorite gay films at this point. And Faithful has him (and his mustache!) starring opposite another fave, Phantom Thread star Vicky Krieps! He plays an imprisoned Communist revolutionary in the 1950s; she's his wife who refuses to abandon him. 

Rabah Naït Oufella in Ibrahim -- Oufella caught our eye thanks to two totally terrific movies, Bertrand Bonello's "teens take over a shopping mall" movie Nocturama and the cannibal flick Raw -- see a nice little gallery of him right here. In Ibrahim he plays the bad-influence best-friend to the titular character (played by Abdel Bendaher, above right), a teenager trying to do good; Rabah drags him into an ill-planned robbery attempt. It played Cannes last year.

Arnaud Valois in Lifelines and Spring Blossom -- The BPM beauty has a pair of features at the fest this year; his role in Lifelines;(which is about a woman obsessed with a found diary) is described as "an intriguing supporting role" but Blossom sounds Valois-centric, with him romancing actress / director Suzanne Lindon.

Niels Schneider in Love Affair -- Niels is best known for being the doe-eyed love-interest in a couple of Xavier Dolan movies back in the day, but he's worked plenty since then -- he was just in the ace Sibyl last year. And he's nominated for Best Actor at the Césars for this movie here -- it's also nominated for Best Film, Best Director, and all the other acting categories, so I think it's one to pay attention to! It's about cousin lovers!

Pierre Niney in Lovers -- The endearingly gawky Niney was delivered unto these shores via Ozon's 2016 film Frantz and immediately became a fave -- this one's a noir-tinged love triangle also starring the terrific Stacy Martin (from Nymphomaniac and Vox Lux) and...

... our boy Benoît  Magimel from The Piano Teacher! Yes this one's a two-fer -- two hot French actors for the price of one. Plus it's a thriller -- obviously this one is high on my Must Watch Immediately list. Although I will surely be let down and the two guys will fight over the girl with nary a whiff of sexual tension between the two of them, sigh. Tis my cruel fate.

Grégoire Ludig in Mandibles -- Previously seen by me rocking one hell of a stache in Quentin Dupieux's super fun 2018 flick Keep an Eye Out! (which I reviewed out of this exact same fest in 2019 right here) this movie has Ludig re-teaming with confirmed nutter Dupieux for a movie about two doofus low-lifes who find a scooter-sized housefly in the trunk of their stolen car, and train it to do crime. I don't think I've disliked a Dupieux flick yet? I am so on his wacky wavelength and this one is apparently one of his best.

Vincent Dedienne in Margaux Hartmann -- I actually don't think I know Dedienne from anything previous (nothing jumps off his IMDb page) but a quick google set me to attention; this is the flick that the fest's Guest of Honor Emmanuelle Béart stars in, and has her playing an older woman who's grieving her dead husband who goes back to school and makes new friends, with sexy results. I feel like you could add "with sexy results" to the description of any French film -- "Two low-lifes discover a gigantic housefly... with sexy results." Okay maybe not every French film. Anyway Dedienne is hella cute right?

Jérémie Renier in Slalom -- I have already posted about this movie! The shots of our beloved Renier doing his thing in this film (and by "his thing" I mean "getting naked" of course) made their way onto the internet back in October of last year, and obviously, just as we would with Jérémie, we jumped right on it. This movie has the legendary Belgian slash blond sexpot playing the creepy ski coach to a teen girl... and yes, "with sexy results" applies, although obviously that comes with several dozen asterisks given the subject matter.

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Phew! What a bunch, huh? "Rendez-Vous with French Cinema" runs on FLC's virtual platform from March 4th through 14th; tickets go on sale on February 19th (or earlier on Feb. 12th for FLC Members). You should have little fear that you won't hear more from me on this series, as I love covering it every year, so stay tuned. I'll throw their whole press release, with word on every single one of the films screening, right here after the jump...

Merry Xmas

 ... from Kit Harington & Xavier Dolan 

(and oh right, me).

The Night Xavier Woke Up

I have just now realized, within the melee of 2020, I never did get around to writing a review of Xavier Dolan's most recent film Mathias & Maxime, which is a real shame -- I remember thinking it was his best effort since Tom at the Farm (which remains my favorite film of his). Maybe before the end of the year (where ever that falls, given the structurelessness of the movie calendar right now) I'll be able to give it a re-watch, share some proper thoughts then. For now there's news on what Dolan is doing next -- he's going to make a five-episode drama for Quebecois TV called The Night Logan Woke Up, described as a "psychological thriller [that] will chart the story of three friends whose lives are shattered after one of them commits rape." 

As controversial as that sounds Dolan seems steeped enough in the here and now to me to handle that subject with smarts, I think -- as aggressively in-your-face as his films can be they've never really struck me as provocative simply for provocation's sake. He's certainly no Verhoeven, for better or for worse. I mean the central relationship between a closeted movie star and a starry-eyed little boy in The Death and Life of John F. Donovan maybe could have used more provocation if you ask me? That one felt of hard edges sanded down, which was too bad. Especially with Kit Harington pouncing on Chris Zylka for god's sake. Give me a hard edge, Xav!

Arnuad You Are But What Am I

Congrats to Quebecois actor and hunka hunka man Francois Arnaud, who came out as bi on his Instagram this past weekend! We've had our eyes on him since he played Xavier Dolan's love interest in Dolan's 2009 film I Killed My Mother -- not just our eyes, but our suspicions (not to mention real world whispers among friends), but twasn't my place to make this happen in any timeline other than his own. (We save the outing for nasty hypocrites with actual power, people like Jerry Falwell Jr.)

Happy “Francois Arnaud just came out as bisexual” Day, everybody! pic.twitter.com/C9bKOBRWbq

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) September 20, 2020

Anyway if you can't read those messages via the above tweet here's the text of what he said:

"Last week, I was chatting with work friends, and as I brought up a trip I’d taken with an ex-girlfriend, I asked myself —for the ten-thousandth time— how to tell such a story without making it seem like that was the whole story of me. 

I’m sure many bisexual guys feel the same and end up doing as I did: letting other people’s assumptions of straightness stand uncorrected. Perhaps out of fear of oversharing. Under the guise of privacy, maybe. Probably because ‘masculinity’ is a most fragile currency, ready to nose-dive at the first sign of vulnerability or difference. And because it’s really fucking scary to give up your privilege. Without a doubt because stigmas of indecisiveness, infidelity, deception and trendiness are still clinging to bisexuality. 

But here’s the thing. Silence has the perverse effect of perpetuating those stereotypes, making bi guys invisible, and leading people to doubt that we even exist. No wonder it’s still a chore to acknowledge bisexuality without getting into lengthy explanations. 

So yes labels are frustrating and words, imperfect. But I've always considered myself bisexual. Not confused or trying to look edgy. Not disloyal. Not ashamed. Not invisible. Happy #bivisibilityday this Wednesday."

So welcome to the rainbow club (officially), Francois, we're happy to have you. So happy we're going to share a photoshoot of you! This comes via Vulkan Magazine, and it's after the jump...

Four Somethings To Look Forward To

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Last week I bitched on Twitter -- what, you think we're doing something else on Twitter? -- about there existing a foursome of films that I have already myself seen and that I would love to write about but can't, because I had, at the time, no information on when they were being released here in the US. The films are...

Some day I'll be able to tell you what I thought of these four movies, I guess! (Can somebody just release them here in the US already, is my point) pic.twitter.com/ukg6G6swv1

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) August 12, 2020

... working clockwise Armando Iannucci's The Personal History of David Copperfield starring Dev Patel, Xavier Dolan's queer romance Matthias & Maxime, Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor with Christopher Abbott and Andrea Riseborough, and finally the South African coming-out drama Moffie. These are all movies I have posted about previously, in some form -- I posted the first trailer for Moffie back in September after it played Venice; I shared a photo of adorable Dev in costume last July; I have already posted an insufferable amount about the Dolan picture. But that brings us to...

... Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor, which totally grossed a whole bunch of people out when it played at Sundance in February, immediately seizing my attention, and which just finally today got a poster (up top) and a trailer and a release date. October 9th is when we'll all be able to officially see it; here's the first violently beautiful batch of images in moving form:

Even though I am going to hold off on properly reviewing the film until it hits in October I do just want you all to know that this movie is a huge step forward for Brandon "Son of David" Cronenberg from his 2012 movie Antiviral, which was a movie I liked but didn't love. Possessor is exactly the deeply disturbing content I demand from a Cronenberg Heir and I plan on watching it dozens of times. Also...

... can I just say that Chris Abbott has officially aged into prime man material? I was already onboard that train thanks to George Clooney ogling his sexy business all over his Catch-22 adaptation, but this movie brings all of that to a whole new unholy level. But more on all of this in October! I'm going to share a few more images from the gorgeous Possessor trailer now and as I do I do want to...

... step back to this post's beginning, because there's been news on all three of the other films I tweeted about in the past week, which seems improbable and only confirms I should bitch on Twitter way more often. 1) Last night during the Democratic National Convention I saw a TV commercial for Dev Patel's David Copperfield -- that's coming out in ten days, on August 28th! No I don't know what "Coming Out" means anymore either, but look around, maybe you're in a place where movies "come out."

And second, I guess you can already watch Moffie online now -- the film's Twitter account shared a link to this DsTV site here, where you can rent it right this minute. If anybody does try to rent it -- and Moffie is a really moving and beautiful film, I recommend you do try -- let me know how that site works. It's my first time hearing of it. (ETA I guess that site doesn't work in the US. So we're still waiting on Moffie here! I will keep my eyes peeled for a release.) And then third slash lastly...

... Xavier Dolan's Matthias & Maxime is apparently hitting the streaming site MUBI on August 28th, according to their Twitter account. This is pretty exciting because 1) the film's terrific, the best thing Dolan's done in awhile, and 2) this is probably the fastest a Xavier Dolan movie has gotten a release in the US; his movies are always a massive pain in the ass to see here for some inexplicable reason. One of the positive side-effects of the pandemic (one of the very very few) seems to be a need for fresh streaming content though, and here we are.

The latest from writer-director-actor Xavier Dolan, streaming exclusively on MUBI from 28 August. 💋 pic.twitter.com/clh6SHIKKe

— MUBI (@mubi) August 13, 2020

Good Morning, World

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Not sure why this new photo from Kit Harington's 2017 photo-shoot for the magazine Icon El Pais suddenly popped up (and into!) over this past weekend -- you can see the rest of it from 2017 here and it's a good one -- but I won't argue.

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Good Morning, Gratuitous Ben Schnetzer

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It looks like the wonderful 2014 film Pride might be turning itself into one of those American-Graffiti-style generational texts that we look back at from the future and say, "Oh I didn't know all these people were in that one before they were somebody!" It's already given us Hot Priest Andrew Scott and Preacher's Joseph Gilgun (yes yes they were in things before but whatever) not to mention Mr. George Mackay, but here today comes Ben Schnetzer, snatching up some attention this morning. I don't know how I totally spaced on posting this news from February (thx Mac) but Ben here got himself cast as Yorick in the long suffering TV adaptation of one of my favorite graphic novels, Y: The Last Man. Let's hear it for Ben!

I don't have it in me to go into Y: The Last Man's eternal in-the-making story this morning, you can skim back through our archives for that -- just know that the last we'd heard our boy Barry Keoghan had ditched the project, and Schnetzer here is replacing him. I thought Barry was a weird but inspired choice for the role -- Schnetzer seems a little safer? But that's okay. I have nothing against Ben here, and he looks more like Yorick as he was drawn...

... than Barry ever did. I am open to this -- I am open to anything when it comes to this show, because I am so very tired of waiting for it to happen. That said after all this time they best not fuck it up! If you're unaware Y:The Last Man is a about a plague (heh) that kills all the world's men except one, Yorick Brown, leaving him alone on a planet full of women. It does not at all play out like the frat-boy fantasy that description might sound like at first blush -- it's complicated and dark and terrific. You should read the series if you have not! MNPP approved!

Anyway back to Ben here. Besides Pride you might recognize him from the TV program Happy Town (I never watched that) or the movies Goat (speaking of frat-boys), The Riot Club, Snowden, Warcraft... oh and I guess he's in Xavier Dolan's The Death and Life of John F. Donovan...

And it would seem that the movie Pride got him the attention of a few gay directors -- besides Dolan he also did a photo-shoot for Numero magazine last November alongside the actor Will Poulter that was photographed by no less than one Mr. Luca Guadagnino...

... of which I'll share more below. Still I like to think of this Euro Pink Mafia pushing around these names -- Xavier and Luca sitting on the phone, twirling the long twisty phone cords that no longer exist but exist in my imagining of this scenario, getting giddy about the boys of Pride. (Oh Luca should certainly work with Andrew Scott.) Anyway I digress, I always digress. I was reminded of Ben Schnetzer's casting as Yorick this week because this week came word that the show will air on FX on Hulu and not just regular FX. And here we are. Posting some pictures! Hit the jump for some pictures...