Hey Yo, Draven here.
We know that Roland Emmerich is just biding his time until he can direct the sequel(s?) to INDEPENDENCE DAY. That had long been planned to be his next film, but with the uncertainty surrounding that film(s?), he has apparently jumped to his next project. Deadline is reporting that he is going to next, be filming STONEWALL.
The film is already set to star Jeremy Irvine (WAR HORSE), and will be about the June 28th, 1969, Stonewall Riots, which are considered by most to be the official beginning of the organized LGBT civil rights movement. It seems crazy now, but before the Stonewall Riots, there were laws in most major US cities (including NYC) that banned homosexuality (and specifically public displays of it).
These laws were used to not only harass businesses that were known to have a homosexual base, but also to raid them and shut many of them down. Finally, a group of gay and lesbians contacted the Stonewall Inn (mafia owned by the way), in Greenwich Village, NY and stood their ground against the police with the support of the Stonewall Inn.
This sparked a riot and word got out that people were finally standing up and this caused a movement to be born. The next night, there were even more protesters and demonstrators outside of the Stonewall Inn and it continued to become more organized and focused. It inspired change and tolerance all over the US. So much so, that on the first anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots, the nation’s first gay pride parades were held in many major US cities, including one right outside the Stonewall Inn.
It’s as interesting and incredible as any civil rights story we have from that time and a lot of people are uneducated on it. So it should make for a great film in the right hands. I know a lot of you are going to have reservations about Emmerich with something this serious and important. I think that him being one of the most notable openly gay directors in Hollywood, and the fact that he was 14 (and just coming to terms with who he was) when these events were going down, should make this as personal of a project to him as we are ever going to get. Hopefully this will start the trend of Hollywood giving us some other really great stories on civil rights and the things people have had to go through and fight for just to be considered a little more equal to the “norm”.
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