A decade and a half after starring in Brokeback Mountain, Jake Gyllenhaal seems primed for his next gay film role. According to Daily Mail entertainment columnist Baz Bamigboye, the Oscar-nominated actor will star as cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s father, Bruce Bechdel, in a big-screen adaptation of the Tony-winning musical Fun Home.
Per Bamigboye, Gyllenhaal’s production company is developing the film, with Sam Gold on board as director. Gold directed Fun Home both off and on Broadway and won a 2015 Tony Award for his efforts.
Related: New Jersey high school library quietly removes lesbian graphic novel “Fun Home” from its shelves
With a book by Lisa Kron and a score by Krone’s and Jeanine Tesori, the musical Fun Home “introduces us to Alison at three different ages, revealing memories of her uniquely dysfunctional family that connect with her in surprising new ways,” adapted from Alison’s best-selling “tragicomic” memoir of the same name. As much as the story centers on Alison’s development, it also focuses on the hidden life of her father, a closeted funeral director.
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Gyllenhaal has been on a roll since playing a cowboy in love with another cowboy in 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, a role for which he received an Academy Award nomination. Highlights of his filmography in the years since include the films Brothers, Prisoners, Nightcrawler, Southpaw, and Nocturnal Animals.
Related: Director spills the tea on which A-listers turned down ‘Brokeback Mountain’
The actor recently reflected on Brokeback Mountain and his costar Heath Ledger, telling Today that Ledger “would never joke. [If] someone wanted to make a joke about the story or whatever, he was like, ‘No. This is about love.’”
The film “opened tons of doors,” Gyllenhaal added. “It was crazy [and] it was amazing. It’s defined my career in different ways.”
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Smith David
Meh!
Donston
It seems like he’s come to terms with ‘Brokeback’ and what it meant for his career. For years it seemed as if its cultural omnipresence made him uncomfortable. But now he’s chill with it.
tjack47
Wasn’t he bisexual in Velvet Buzzsaw?
alterego1980
Yes!! I love how his last scene played out!!
dannyboi2
That’s a great photo of him, what a Daddy for sure. For me he can do no wrong, just do it!
[email protected]
Very well said and very well anticipated!
You’re not looking too bad in the Daddy department yourself there stud! ?
trsxyz
Jake Gyllenhaal… (yawn…) Jake Gyllenhall is going gay again… (big yawn…)
Cam
Still no marriage, no serious girlfriend. Just hasn’t found the right woman. (eye roll)
Rock-N-RollHS
Project much. By that measure, most gay guys I know must be secretly straight. (Never married, no long-term boyfriends.)
Actually, JG has had several long-term girlfriends. But, hey, fantasize away. . .
batesmotel
Sounds great.
Thad
Jake Gyllenhaal should be so good playing Bruce Bechdel. Bechdel was a complicated man with many virtues and faults, but from his daughter’s writings I think I would have liked him. Circumstance put him in a small Pennsylvania town and a funeral home. Jake has an opportunity to play a role here.
James Hart
Who cares?
dinard38
Well apparently you do, since you took the time to read the article AND comment on it.
I get so annoyed with these bitchy comments. Haven’t you heard the saying……if you don’t have anything nice to say…..STFU!!!! Something like that 🙂
Rock-N-RollHS
I’m glad they are letting a great actor play it and not hissy-fitting that he’s not gay. Maybe we ARE making progress.
KC Drew
I will always wonder if Heath was actually gay and, seriously, rather fell in love with Jake and it was more than he could take.