Brokeback Mountain, the groundbreaking movie directed by Academy Award winner Ang Lee, is getting an exciting twist later on this month.
Newfest, New York City’s annual LGTBQ film festival, will be hosting a virtual live-read of its screenplay written by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Except this time around the cast will be entirely comprised of trans actors.
They go as follows: Leo Sheng (The L Word: Generation Q) will take on the part as Ennis and Brian Michael Smith (911: Lone Star) as Jack. Ennis and Jack were the two leads in the film brilliantly played by the late Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal (both received Oscar nominations for their performances).
Rounding out the cast is Jen Richards (Tales of the City) as Alma and Alexandra Grey (Empire) as Lurleen. Sam Feder (director of Disclosure) is the narrator.
It takes place two Sunday’s from today on October 18 at 6pm ET/3pm PT. The reading will be broadcast on Newfest’s YouTube and Facebook pages. It is free, although there is a suggested donation that will be split between The Newfest Future Fund & NYC’s Anti-Violence Project.
There’s lots more taking place during Newfest which begins on October 16th and ends on the 27. Take a look at what they have in store here.
Why?