FADE IN: Trailer For James Franco’s Cruising Movie Project!

By Mark Adnum / Wednesday, December 19th, 2012

The trailer for Interior. Leather Bar, where filmmakers James Franco and Travis Mathews reimagine the fabled lost footage from William Friedkin’s misunderstood Cruising is now up.

View it along with a handful of terrific new images from the interesting project after the jump.

From the description:

Amid the backdrop of a frenzied film set actor Val Lauren reluctantly agrees to take the lead in the film. Val is repeatedly forced to negotiate his boundaries during scenes on and “off camera,” as unsimulated gay sex happens around him. The film itself is constructed as a play with boundaries remaining queer in subject and form. As much a film about filmmaking as it is about an exploration of sexual and creative freedom, Interior. Leather Bar defies easy categorization.

More about this project and the original Cruising.

http://www.facebook.com/matthew.rettenmund Matthew Rettenmund

I don’t think CRUISING was misunderstood, I think it was actually one of the few films protested for being anti-gay that wasn’t just anti-gay in theory but anti-gay in intent. That back-stabbing murder scene makes it quite clear how the filmmaker views gay sex, and I would argue the ending makes it pretty clear that the story thinks homosexuality (synonymous with SM) is contagious. My take on it.
south loop

Respectfully disagree with your take. The first victim is amazingly sympathetic and vulnerable. Friedkin doesn’t view gay sexuality as contagious. He’s concerned with identity and using a controversial setting to illustrate. The killer of the first victim is later killed. Pacino’s character goes through such a wrenching experience that he doesn’t know who he is anymore. It’s confusing to track the killer for the audience, just as it is for Pacino’s character. I think it’s misunderstood because its arrival coincided with a new-found ability of gay men to be heard on a large scale. Being anti-Cruising was a celebrated cause.