Wednesday, April 23, 2008

A Tale of Two Hippies

First thing I read this morning, over at AICN, they've got a post up on Ang Lee's newly announced project, and have this to say:

"Ang Lee's about to rejoin once again with Focus Features and make a flick about the events leading up to the original Woodstock. Sounds pretty interesting. The comedy is based on Elliot Tiber's book TAKING WOODSTOCK: A TRUE STORY OF A RIOT, A CONCERT AND A LIFE.

The story follows Tiber, an average joe working for his parents' motel in the Catskills and how he inadvertently sets in motion the events that culminate in the biggest monument to the free love attitude and amazing music of the '60s.

There's not much known at this point other than Lee directing and that it will not be a concert movie... the concert itself might not even feature."

Anything Lee attaches himself to finds me curious, since he's not made a bad movie yet (I'm not listening to you, Hulk haters). So this news was interesting in that respect, even if the material wasn't exactly lighting my brain afire (another 60's love-in movie?).

Then I head over to Towleroad and a new angle to the tale:

"Taking Woodstock tells the story of Tiber ... a gay interior designer, part-time Catskills hotel manager and head of the Bethel, N.Y., Chamber of Commerce, and his role in facilitating the Woodstock Festival, providing the permit that made the Festival possible, as well as the eventual location on his milkman Max Yasgur's farm."

Um. Ang Lee... the fella who directed Brokeback Mountain... is making a new movie with a homosexual main character? Ding ding ding, we have a winner.

It doesn't sound as if the gay part of the movie will be Gay, like it was with Brokeback; that is, it's not exactly the main focus here. Still, this is some of the same time-span that Brokeback floats through, so it'll be interesting to see Lee take on the charges about the insular, totally homophobic world Brokeback existed in, showing that across the country things were a little different. With the dirty hippies and all.

Curiouser and curiouser, anyway. Who would y'all cast as Tiber? That's him in 1969 up there on the right.
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3 comments:

Joe Reid said...

Come on, Mark Ruffalo!

Michael Parsons said...

Since it looks like he will be playing it from earlier on I say give this to James McAvoy!

Jason Adams said...

Ruffalo's a terrific choice, Joe.

Cinematical says this: "The point, I take it, is that Tiber's role in one of the greatest events in rock and roll history served as redemption for giving up his own artistic ambitions and living most of his life in the closet."

So perhaps we've got another closet-case tale from Lee & Schamus here?