Mike Faist and Lucas Hedges are headed to Brokeback Mountain.
Today, it was announced that the two actors will star in a West End stage adaptation of Annie Proulx’s 1997 short story of the same name, which will have a 12-week run at @sohoplace, a London theater, starting May 10, according to Variety. Faist will play rodeo cowboy Jack Twist, and Hedges will play ranch hand Ennis Del Mar.
Brokeback Mountain tells the story of two working-class men who develop a decades-long hidden relationship after working on the titular mountain together in 1963. Proulx’s story was famously adapted into a 2005 feature film by Ang Lee starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as Jack and Ennis, respectively. One of the first mainstream releases centered on a gay love story, the film became a critical and box office success, forcing Hollywood to realize that LGBTQ+ stories also have a place outside of indie filmmaking. It went on to take home three Academy Awards: best director, best original score, and adapted screenplay. Its loss to Crash for best picture is considered one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history.
The West End version will be directed by Jonathan Butterell, who previously helmed the stage and film versions of Everbody’s Talking About Jamie, which follows a young British drag queen. The play is by Ashley Robinson, with songs by Dan Gillespie Sells.
“When Ashley approached us about collaborating on Brokeback Mountain, we were struck immediately by his deep connection to the world and community that Annie has so brilliantly written about over the years,” Butterell said in a press release. “He brought to the adaptation an authenticity and an understanding of these working class men, scraping to survive the brutality of their environment and the insularity of thinking surrounding them, which ultimately leads to their tragedy.”
But the play isn’t the only new Brokeback Mountain-inspired work to make headlines this year. Gay Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s queer short film Strange Way of Life, which stars Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal as a sheriff and gunslinger, will open Cannes Film Festival in May.
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Almodóvar described the short as “my answer to Brokeback Mountain,” which is fitting given that the filmmaker was originally in talks to direct the 2005 film before ultimately passing on the project.”
“I think Ang Lee made a wonderful movie, but I never believed that they would give me complete freedom and independence to make what I wanted,” Almodóvar previously told IndieWire. The director has previously spoken about his intentions to focus on the “animalistic” nature of Jack and Ennis’ relationship, which struck him while reading Proulx’s short story.
“For me, it was impossible to have that in the movie, because it was a Hollywood movie,” he added. “You could not have these two guys fucking all the time.”
With a new Brokeback Mountain play and Strange Way of Life on the horizon, here’s hoping that 2023 will truly be the summer of the gay cowboy.
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