On the surface,
Craig Chester's Adam & Steve seems like
another low-budget gay-themed comedy, destined for a
limited Los Angeles-New York run before a platform
release in urban markets en route to Netflix. But the
film marks several important milestones for its
producer, director, and distributor and for gay
independent cinema itself.
It's the
sophomore feature for Funny Boy Films, which released the
Mormon coming-out drama Latter Days in 2003.
It's the directing debut of longtime indie film actor
Chester (Swoon), who has made an unapologetic gay
romance with a happy ending. It marks the widest
release for TLA Releasing, opening Friday in 13
markets on 18 screens followed by a rollout to 14 more
cities over the next few weeks, making it one of the largest
releases ever for a low-budget gay film.
For producer
Kirkland Tibbels, founder of Funny Boy (his childhood
nickname and the title of the bomb musical version of
Hamlet in The Producers), the film also
is part of his mission. "There's plenty of what's
wrong with our culture onscreen--our struggles, our
plights--and I'm looking to create more heroic
journeys," he says.
Not that Tibbels
takes too much seriously. The former stand-up comic and
film school student grew up poor on a cattle ranch in West
Texas. After striking it rich as an agency owner in
the employee leasing firm Administaff in the late
'80s, Tibbels eventually ended up in Los Angeles and
founded FilmNext, producing Tim Kirkman's 2000 film version
of David Drake's play The Night Larry Kramer Kissed
Me. Distributing the film himself "was
ridiculous," Tibbels recalls. "I spent a summer
digging post holes that was easier." Still, taking it
on the road taught him a lot. "People said, 'Where are the
life-affirming stories?"'
Funny Boy, which
has billed itself as "the world's first gay and
lesbian studio," has a multifilm, first-look deal with TLA
that includes theatrical and DVD distribution rights.
Both firms are open to offers from larger buyers, and
though none have bitten so far, Tibbels says the pact
helped attract some 25 investors to the $1 million-plus
Adam. The star factor didn't hurt, either.
Chester's longtime friend Parker Posey was attached from the
start, and Chester staged a dozen readings of his
script for the producers and development people he had
befriended at film festivals over the years. "I used
to read scripts for Miramax," Chester says, "and I
found it was really hard to get comedies from what was on
the page."
Chester and
Caroline in the City actor Malcolm Gets
ultimately took on the title roles as two men who meet in
the late '80s New York club scene and reconnect nearly
two decades later with no recollection of their
embarrassing introduction. Former Saturday Night Live
cast member Chris Kattan and Posey add some star value
as their sidekicks, along with film vets such as
Melinda Dillon, Julie Hagerty, Sally Kirkland, and Paul
Sand.
Aside from the
film's name actors, Tibbels said the reason for such a
relatively wide release on such a small film is "to move
through the release window faster, rather than creep
out." He feels confident that the film will reach more
than the nearly 100 markets where Latter Days played.
"We're prepared to throw gasoline on the fire," he
said.
Funny Boy's next
production is an adaptation of Neil Miller's Sex-Crime
Panic. Covering a little-known chapter in American
history, it documents 20 gay men in Iowa committed to mental
institutions after a child's murder in the 1950s. "The
majority of these guys found their freedom and a way
to exist openly as part of the sexual revolution,"
Tibbels says. The recent success of Brokeback
Mountain augurs well for Tibbels's efforts, he
hopes, explaining, "Before Brokeback, no studio execs
were calling, but now a few have been asking 'What
else have you got?"' (Gregg Goldstein, Reuters)