Gay Teen Superhero Story in Development at Showtime
I love you, Robert Greenblatt. Though I presume that you have someone significant in your life currently, because of this news I will always be at the ready should you call.
Stan Lee? I like you a lot, too. Thanks for bringing this project, based on the Perry Moore novel, to Showtime.
Story, which focuses on an up-and-coming superhero who struggles to hide his secret identities, is based on the book "Hero" by Perry Moore.
Moore is penning the script and also exec producing along with Hunter Hill.
Previous series television produced by Lee includes whimsical reality-competish skein "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?," which ran on the Sci Fi Channel from 2005-07.
The comicbook maven is in development on several features for Paramount, including "Thor," "The First Avenger: Captain America" and a sequel to last summer's "Iron Man."
From Perry Moore's website (where you can click over to sites selling the book, I'm buying it today):
Thom Creed is used to being on his own. Even as a high school basketball star, he has to keep his distance because of his father. Hal Creed had once been one of the greatest and most beloved superheroes of The League-until the Wilson Towers incident. After that Thom's mother disappeared and his proud father became an outcast.
The last thing in the world Thom would ever want is to disappoint his father. So Thom keeps two secrets from him: First is that he's gay. The second is that he has the power to heal people. Initially, Thom had trouble controlling his powers. But with trail and error he improves, until he gets so good that he catches the attention of the League and is asked to join. Even though he knows it would kill his dad, Thom can't resist. When he joins the League, he meets a motley crew of other heroes, including tough-talking Scarlett, who has the power of fire from growing up near a nuclear power plant; Typhoid Larry, who makes everyone sick by touching them, but is actually a really sweet guy; and wise Ruth, who has the power to see the future. Together these unlikely heroes become friends and begin to uncover a plot to kill the superheroes. Along the way, Thom falls in love, and discovers the difficult truth about his parents' past.
There's more on Perry Moore today at AfterElton.com in a blog post by our pal Lyle Masaki, who also authors Crocodile Caucus (see the blogroll to the left). On top of all the above, Perry is People Magazine''s Sexy Man of the Week:
We told you last week about People Magazine's 100 Sexy Men in 1 Minute video which included three openly gay men. In the current issue, the very gay-friendly publication has picked an openly gay man as its "Sexy Man of the Week": Narnia producer and Hero author, Perry Moore.
(snip)
For decades a frequent argument against gay visibility said that a mainstream (read: heterosexual) audience couldn't find gay men sexy because women couldn't fantasize about them and men couldn't look up to them. Thus, it strikes me as very progressive for a mainstream publication to name an openly gay man as an example of sexiness and include his tips on romance.
I'll set a Google News Alert and keep you up to date on the progress of this project.
Read an excerpt from the novel at Perry's website. Buy the book. Support gay writers, please (gay writers besides Russell T. Davies, that is).
Speaking of Stan Lee, you see a reference to his Captain America project above. Wonder if John Barrowman is still in the running for that? I hope so.
