Hollywood To Release Controversial Brian’s Song Remake With Gay Theme
By COURTNEY WEBER
May 15, 2012
HOLLYWOOD - Word that Artisanal Film of Santa Marino is planning to remake the sports classic tear-jerker Brian’s Song was greeted with anxiety by more than a few fans of the original film — and by Billie Dee Williams who starred as Gayle Sayers in the original film.
Williams as a flamboyant Lando Calrissian. With that surname, whether he was black or Persian was up for debate, but one thing for certain was that he was cool.
“I’m sort of surprised by this decision. Certain things you shouldn’t touch,” claims Williams. Sayers character in BS formed a close friendship – and a controversial bond across racial lines – with James Caan’s character Brian Piccolo. Piccolo was Sayers’ back-up at running back with the Chicago Bears during the 1968 NFL season.
“While we don't know that Sayers and Piccolo had a sexual relationship, we don’t know that they didn’t either.”
The original BS traces the close friendship formed between the two diverse men during a time when black and white relations in the U.S. were tense. As in true life, Piccolo dies in BS from a rare form of cancer forcing Sayers to come out of his emotional shell.
The original film’s creator, Richard Mallen, has told the press that the project does not have his blessing. What irks Mallen and has the rest of Hollywood in a buzz is Artisanal’s new plot line. In the reworked screenplay, the Sayers-Piccolo friendship evolves into a homosexual relationship. In the original BS as in real life, both Sayers and Piccolo were married during their time with the Bears. Also, no known homosexual affair existed between them.
The original Brian's Song only hinted at a possible sexual relationship between Sayers and Piccolo.
Creative director for Artisanal, Joe Sara, defends the production. “While we don't know that Sayers and Piccolo had a sexual relationship, we don’t know that they didn’t either.” According to Sara, the story should be told to a new generation and it needs a fresh angle for that to occur. “Kids today haven’t heard of these men, and the racial diversity story is not enough to get their attention,” said Sara. “African Americans are accepted in football; gays [still] are not.”
The 2005 film Brokeback Mountain grossed over $80 million, in part, by capitilizing on the stir created by injecting a gay relationship into a traditionally macho role - the cowboy.
Sayers is supportive of the project. “I think it is wonderful that the story of Brian[’s] and my friendship will be told again,” said Sayers, who will be playing the role of the Bears’ legendary head coach Jim Dooley. As to whether Sayers and Piccolo ever did anything more than tackling, Sayers says, “I suppose that’s for only me and Brian to know and the rest of the world to wonder about.”
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