Here's Your First Look at the "Everybody's Talking About Jamie" Movie Musical
Entertainment Weekly has released its annual Pride Month issue, and while some have thoughts on the illustrated cover, the issue itself contains some cool previews of upcoming queer media—including the highly anticipated Everybody's Talking About Jamie movie musical.
As NewNowNext previously reported, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is a hit London musical based on the 2011 BBC documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, about a gay teen in a small English town who wants to attend his high school prom in drag. The stage show is now being made into a musical for the big screen.
The Olivier-nominated show features a score by Dan Gillespie Sells, gay lead singer of British rock band The Feeling, with a book and lyrics by Tom MacRae. Director Jonathan Butterell and choreographer Kate Prince will adapt their work for the screen.
RuPaul's Drag Race squirrel friends Michelle Visage and Bianca Del Rio both had guest stints in the show, but neither will be appearing in the film adaptation. It was announced last year that Oscar nominee Richard E. Grant would be playing retired drag queen Hugo, a.k.a. Loco Chanelle, who now owns a boutique where he mentors young Jamie and helps him pick out his first dress. (Bianca played Loco in two different runs on the West End.)
The movie musical will also star Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe), Sarah Lancashire (Happy Valley), and newcomer Max Harwood as Jamie.
According to EW, more than 3,000 up-and-coming actors auditioned to fill Jamie's heels on the big screen. Harwood "casually" sent in an audition tape months into casting and instantly won over the director and producers.
"He literally just said 'hello,' and you just felt this kind of life force," Butterell told the magazine. "He was our Jamie."
"Although it feels rather niche, about a 16-year-old boy who wants to come out as a drag queen at prom, we never wanted it to be a coming-out story," the director explained. "It's about how you take your place in the world."
Everybody's Talking About Jamie is scheduled to hit theaters later this year.
