DL Fave Luke Macfarlane will be Billy Eichner’s Love Interest in Universal’s Bros, first gay rom com from a studio

Definitely tempted to go and see it at the cinema.

Just goes to show you how quickly fortunes can come in Hollywood, Macfarlane appears to have been leaning into a career in woodworking when he got this.

Well he's infinitely hotter than Eichner.

Not remotely the first gay rom com from a studio.

R4 = thinks he knows more that Deadline

How long will it be before Eichner and the studio are accused of being racist for having 2 white men as the leads?

R6. Oh give it a fucking rest. Your own racist paranoia is just tiresome.

Billy was good on the street. But he is a terrible actor.

Is this going to be the Pretty Woman for the next generation?

In that this is highly implausible that someone like Luke would go for a Billy, just as it was implausible that a whore would find a rich Prince Charming who sweeps her off her feet?

R7, you know the fact that neither lead is a POC will be brought up before the movie by some. The cast will probably be asked about it in some press junkets. I'll be sure to bump this thread when it happens just to show that I was right.

R8, Billy is a bad actor and Luke is just a decent actor. I'm not sure that portends good things for this movie.

[quote]I'll be sure to bump this thread when it happens just to show that I was right.

Bully for you. Exhausting.

Well, it'd be more believable if they picked someone that equalled Eichner's looks but, okay. I guess Eichner's character has money.

The mainstream media will not care that both leads are white, but they will be excoriated by the HRC and GLAAD for not casting a BIPOC trans.

he's cute, but not cute enough to balance out eichners ugly face and obnoxiousness

Compared to fare like “Eating Out,” this can only go up.

This movie is going to fucking suck. Judd Apatow movies are always fucking horrible and Billy is a shitty actor. I do not believe it will be worse than Trainwreck, however, which was a certifiable train wreck.

This is like Harvey Fierstein casting a young Mathew Broderick as his boyfriend.

[quote]Well, it'd be more believable if they picked someone that equalled Eichner's looks but, okay.

You just know they had asked M*tt B*mer first and went with this as the other openly gay but hot alternative.

While I like to look at Luke, he's not the greatest actor in the world. "GET THE GUY FROM COUNTLESS HALLMARK MOVIES THAT'S ACTUALLY GAY!"

They would have not cast Bomer who would look slight against 6’3” Eichner.

Oh my. The look of this man as seen by your love for him is overestimated blindly. Even if Billy's character was bankrupt, they would have good chemistry without feeling somewhat strange.

Plus He's totally middle-aged.

The emergence of the Hurumph Queen at r20.

Eichner is a poor mans Paul Lynde.

[quote] Oh my. The look of this man as seen by your love for him is overestimated blindly. Even if Billy's character was bankrupt, they would have good chemistry without feeling somewhat strange.

Just curious what your native language is.

Ha! People in Western Europe have a high standard of living with access to high quality education and civil services.

⬆️ R20. Not R21.

Understood, but I’m still wondering what your native language is.

I think this actor is a better fit.

I don’t see them together.

Will Luke play a hot but fading Hollywood C Lister who makes Hallmark movies? On the set of one, he meets Eichner, who is a flaming set designer and graduate of The Sheboygan Conservatory of Creative and Performing Arts?

All the Vaseline will be on the lens..

R27 Well, I’d rather not answer your question. So, maybe I could speak English more correctly than some of native speakers!

I don’t get Universal making this film with Billy Eichner who has never carried a movie. Seems doomed.

Judd Apatow has been based at Universal for years and they greenlit this to please him.

Not a fan of Apatow’s work but he is the one who 100% made this film possible.

IIRC Apatow has wanted to use his deal at Universal to get a gay romcom made for a few years, it was first pitched with Andrew Rannells a few years ago but never materialized.

And Judd will cast his wife and daughter as fag hags.

R33, They're probably counting on Judd Apatow's "magic."

Luke and Wentworth Miller were such a great couple......

Wentworth Miller stans were totally in denial: 'he's not gay!', 'he has a girlfriend', he's too busy to date', he's not ready to settle down'......blah, blah

Luke is barely a TV star. Though I like him well enough.

Dan Levy has a MUcH bigger fan base. He should be the one with the first gay romcom .

I agree R40. I’m not understanding why Billy is getting more work than Dan.

What r34 said.

Apatow has been fighting to get a gay movie made for years. I respect him a lot for committing and finally getting it made.

A mainstream studio romcom staring two openly gay actors? Before we begin bitching let's acknowledge this is a really big deal!

And people saying MacFarlane is hotter, duh. See Apatow's Knocked Up with Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigel. He had an average looking but funny guy with this hot girl. Same dynamic here.

Meanwhile, Luke's other (Christmas) gay rom-com, "Single All the Way" also has Jennifer Coolidge from "White Lotus." To premiere on Netflix near the end of this year.

I don’t know. I cringe that the major selling point of this is an all openly gay cast. Seems so obvious. I guess if they had a decent story they’d go with that so instead, they have to lead with this.

Describing ANY rom com as historic seems heavy-handed and more than a little self-congratulatory. Also, it kind of ensures that no one will go see this. I mean, big deal - a couple of drag queens and two middle- aged gay guys are making a movie together. Would’ve been better if the news was: this is a good movie.

And, also: Guy Branum? O-k. Unfunny writer of Q-Force and the even less funny The Other Two. On screen. Sounds like a winner.

I don’t know about anyone else, but a lot of gay couples I know have one person much more (what I would consider) objectively/traditionally attractive than the other (money not being a factor), but then in gay circles (taking mine and friends opinions into account) I don’t think ‘traditional’ attractiveness necessarily equates to ‘sexy’. I find certain features about what might be considered ‘ugly’ to be very sexy (big noses / big ears / weird eyes) and also find the whole package (hands / thighs etc.) to factor heavily into what I find attractive in a man.

TL:DR conventional attractiveness doesn’t strongly correlate to subjective ideas of sexiness (more more important in a relationship) in gay culture, so to me, very few pairings don’t ‘make sense’.

[Quote]Would’ve been better if the news was: this is a good movie.

What are you talking about r46? Its a casting announcement, the movie hasn't been made yet. What would they talk about other than the historic nature of the cast.

Man, some gay men are so self-loathing they twist themselves in circles to justify how they feel.

[Quote]the even less funny The Other Two.

Well if you don't like the Other Two I don't know what to say to you, show is good.

The Other Two is a comedy with a little “c”. It’s never made me laugh. Takes aim at obvious, tired topics. It doesn’t even have a premise.

Billy Eichner Sets Historic LGBTQ Cast (With a Twist) for Universal’s ‘Bros’:

Well, straight comedian have been casting hot people out their leagues as love interests forever.

So I guess it’s gay uggos’ turn.

I hate that Billy probably considers calling it ‘Bros’ to be subversive in some way. Like, I’m sure he thinks he’s really doing something with that. It’s just another page in the hetero-worship book that certain gays can’t stop reading (the types that would smile smugly if someone said that they are straight passing).

A Billy Eichner movie is “fortunate” or worth a “fortune,” r2?

I see the anti-trans trolls have arrived. Good lord, Republicans are trying to use the Supreme Court to overturn gay marriage and Lawrence v Texas but you freaks think trans people are your biggest enemy

This is a milestone. Can't we celebrate instead of trying to bash trans people and non-white people?

R5 hasn’t seen IN & OUT.

I DO know more than that Deadline writer, fuckwad! And a helluva lot more than you, obviously.

Are you some Zoomlennial? Where does your ignorance come from?

Trailer

I'm pretty liberal with my genres -- for example, I think The Fly (1986) is more a tragic romance than it is a horror film -- but even I wouldn't classify In & Out as a rom-com. It's a straight up farce that features a love story, but that is not the primary focus of the film; rather, it's about Howard's journey out of the closet.

Judd Apatow is a comic genius — better than 90 percent of comedy showrunners in Hollywood.

Y’all are just haters.

Neither Universal nor Apatow expect this to be a mainstream hit. It WILL make money, however, partly from my purchase.

Sorry, r40.

Kevin Klein was the main character of the first gay rom com.

How does Billy have any clout or money? This seems like a slow moving disaster.

Farces are usually romantic comedies and In & Out absolutely plays and feels like a romantic comedy. There was a same-sex kiss.

You could also call The Birdcage a “gay romantic comedy.”

Billy is funny and surprisingly a good singer.

I’d rather have sex with Billy than Andrew Rannells.

No, sorry: the romance must be the primary narrative element in a rom-com, the engine that makes the story work, and if removed, you wouldn’t have a story at all. You can remove the romance from In & Out and still have a story.

The entire main cast with be LGBT

oh they were filming this in Provincetown when I was there two weeks ago

Billy MAKING HISTORY!!!! Is he curing a disease? Changing the law? Shaping foreign policy? Saving the migrants at the border?

No - he’s casting several gay men to play straight BROS in a movie hardly anyone will see because the romantic lead is Billy Eichner.

Unless he’s being sarcastic, he needs to take it down a notch. I’ll see the movie and I’m glad it’s getting made - but these actors are so grandiose. It’s tiresome.

I think he's leaning into the "historical" aspect of this film because he knows it will be a middling piece of shit. Kind of like how Crazy Rich Asians got a lot of praise for being historic even though it's pucky girl winning over snobs plot could have been written in the 1950s.

Crazy Rich Asians was historic because there are hardly any mainstream American films where the main characters are all Asian. And there have been zero mainstream American films where the main characters are all played by out actors. Geez, some people here want to pretend prejudice doesn't exist

If they'd done it 10 years ago Tuc Watkins would have been perfect.

I don't dislike Luke but I just find him a little bland. And he's already played the straight version of this a bajillion times.

Outside of hollywood and fame bubbles, there is no way a guy who looked like Eichner would land a guy who looks like Luke.

Oddly, Luke is a Hallmark Channel rom-com darling. He's made many for them - he actually appears on lists of "actors who starred in the most Hallmark movies"

I find him rather appealing.

I fully understand why CRA was considered historic, r68. Calm down. My point was that it was historic and old fashioned/unoriginal. I think Bros will be similar. Geez some people react instead of thinking.

Satan’s play

I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I would be shocked if this really crosses over to mainstream audiences, or even finds much attraction from an entirely gay/lesbian audience -- aside from gay men deep into the scene, the LGBTQ+ cast will be a turn-off. Meanwhile, the T and Q contingent will call for a boycott because the film centers cis white gay men, and the Ls will simply not be interested.

exactly what R73 said.

Dan Levy is making a rom com too. He will cast all straights.

Personality aside I think Billy is very attractive. He's tall, furry, beautiful blue eyes, and say what you will but at least he has a sense of humor.

R73 is trying to attack trans people when, if this gets protested at all, the people complaining will probably be conservatives

Oh, I'm sure there will be conservatives protesting. I imagine people like Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh will rail against the film on their podcasts, insisting it's yet another example of the decline of America.

I enjoyed Luke McF in Killjoys.

In all of the press I've read, only the words "Queer" and of course the ridiculous "LGBTQI+" are used to describe the film's cast.

NOBODY is Gay! Yuck.

He looks handsome in R64 's pic. Even teeth.

Eichner came for the sweet, funny, and talented Ross Matthews five years ago in a really hostile and entitled manner.

In American Crime Story Impeachment, the stuff I learned about Matt Drudge was due to the screenplay and direction. Eichner brought nothing extra to the role.

Billy, go back to the street.

Can't believe Billy overshadowed Dan Levy's Netflix RomCom

Billy is fug. Is this going to be the gay version of Beauty and the Beast?

Looks like Luke is going to be a lover interest in another gay movie

Does Hollywood think ALL gay couples are a black man and a white man, r85? It sure seems like it.

A rom com is the furthest thing from a documentary, R86. If this offends your delicate sensibilities, feel free not to watch.

You are literally posting in a thread about a rom com that will start two white guys r86....?

[quote]Does Hollywood think ALL gay couples are a black man and a white man...

No. Sometimes they think it's an Asian man and a black man. And when it's Henry Golding (half-Asian) and Parker Sawyers, it works out just fine.

The point is: why is it never a white guy and a Chinese guy? or a Latino guy and a South Asian dude? or a Native American guy and an Arab? With the exception of the subject of this thread, it's always a black guy and an X guy. I wouldn't even notice it if it didn't seem so deliberate, patronizing, and, well, not diverse.

R90, if you've seen any of the Jeffrey Dahmer films, they always pair a white guy with a South Asian.

It would be so great to see Luke and Trevor Donovan playing a gay couple on a movie.

R90 your anti-blackness has made you think there’s a situation like you’ve described happening, when in reality, there isn’t. Get help lol.

Filming Friday on the UWS:

[quote] In that this is highly implausible that someone like Luke would go for a Billy, just as it was implausible that a whore would find a rich Prince Charming who sweeps her off her feet?

Is it really? I used to think so then I realized that all the recent gay or bi athletes that came out date very stereotypical flamboyant gays and/or smart nerdy types.

[quote]Does Hollywood think ALL gay couples are a black man and a white man,

We're in a thread discussing a romcom about two white men who will play a couple after also touching base on a movie where a white guy is with a black guy AND another white guy. Also, someone mentioned Dan Levy whose series, Schitt's Creek featured two white men in a relationship.

So I'm not sure where the hell you're getting "all" from?

[quote]Describing ANY rom com as historic seems heavy-handed and more than a little self-congratulatory

Context is everything. This one is historic not because it's a rom com but because it's a gay rom com. It's so obvious only a moron would have trouble understanding that.

[quote]Does Hollywood think ALL gay couples are a black man and a white man,

Is EVERYBODY gay??

What do you think of Billy’s Bros look?

This is filming in Jersey City right now. Wonder if there are scenes set there or if it is just standing in for NY.

People talking about the look differential, so what? It is a trope in Hollywood. Look at all the "romantic" sitcoms where you have the average looking, working class guy with a supermodel looking wife, which is rarely true in real life. This is just the same-sex version.

So a movie called Bros has lots of non binary and drag queens? This is the movie that will be embraced by everyone? Are these people high?

McFarlane sure is a cutie. Look at those cheekbones and those heavy-lidded eyes.

Trailer for Luke's upcoming gay romcom with Michael Urie

This will be a massive bomb.

Eichner Is ugly as sin.

So Michael Urie chooses the black guy over hunk Luke Macfarlane?

What fucking retard would choose some random recently landed black guy over a hunting and fishing /real/ Canadian?

Is he insane?

R107. Just watched it. Outrageous. If Urie had a chance at Macfarlane he would jump over a hundred men to get at him!

Yeah, but they needed to keep it PG and also predictable since it was obvious that he was going to end up with his black friend R109

I think Philemon is much cuter than Luke, but this is DL so I realize that'll be an unpopular opinion. For reasons.

I just watched him on some Netflix gay holiday dreck, how does that not count?

Between Eichner and Macfarlane, that's a whole lot of nostril.

Billy Eichner claps back at Aaron Sorkin over gay actor comments:

Does Aaron Sorkin even write gay characters?

[quote]Billy Eichner claps back at Aaron Sorkin over gay actor comments

I refuse to read any article that uses "claps back" in its headline.

How well will this do at the box office? I can’t imagine most audiences being interested in seeing it.

R90, white Superman’s boyfriend is an ugly Asian.

Which is a more realistic pairing - Luke's character with Billy Eichner's, or Luke's character with Michael Urie's?

Or rather, which is less of an impossible scenario?

My same thought r115. Off the top of my head I can't think of Aaron Sorkin ever writing gay characters into his projects.

I would watch Luke MacFarlane in anything. I don't care that he's not the best actor around, but he sure is purty..

The problem with Luke is that he does no nude scenes... what with his Hallmark channel Christmas rom-com persona and all.

No, the premise doesn’t sound appealing.

What’s with all the rom com bullshit? It’s such a dead genre at the box office. Maybe it’s because the only rom coms that have been successful were diversity ones like “Rich Crazy Asians” and making a gay one will bring in the box office money?

I feel like gay humor is always dumbed down in Hollywood.

R123, Love, Simon didn’t do too well at the box office. But even if there is a potential for a gay rom com to do well at the box office, why would ANYONE be interested in seeing Billy Eichner? I’d rather see a gay rom com starring Zac Efron or Chris Evans, even if they are straight. I don’t care about Billy Eichner, he’s a nobody.

[quote] I feel like gay humor is always dumbed down in Hollywood.

Well, duh! Mainstream doesn't like clever. And Hollywood is trying to appeal to the mainstream.

Gays alone can't make a movie or TV show a commercial success. Gays, the LGBT Community and their allies? Maybe. The mainstream? For sure.

I have a suspicion that the Harry Styles gay movie will do better at the box office, Harry Styles is more interesting than Billy Eichner.

Harry Styles has crazy fans who would eat shit if he said it's cool.

Mainstream gay movies is not meant for gays themselves but for straight frau.

r128, that's because Fraus spend money on stuff they like. Gays bitch and moan that it's not up their standards. When was the last time a gay movie or TV show made by Gays (exclusively) for Gays was successful?

Some posters at DL love to complain, but I don't see them supporting anything gay. They rather look forward to push Ryan Murphy and Greg Berlanti into a grease fire than spend some time to praise their idea of good gay entertainment. It's almost like they are a bunch of homophobic trolls and haters.

[quote]But even if there is a potential for a gay rom com to do well at the box office, why would ANYONE be interested in seeing Billy Eichner? I’d rather see a gay rom com starring Zac Efron or Chris Evans, even if they are straight. I don’t care about Billy Eichner, he’s a nobody.

The problem is that A-list stars (well, for anyone who thinks of Zac Efron as A-list) would never do a gay rom-com for anything in the world. They are only willing to play gay if it's a dramatic role with the possibility of an Oscar or Emmy as the payoff for doing something so "brave."

Luke and Trevor Donovan would be a better casting.

I would change the title from "Bros" to "Whose Your Daddy?" and have it star Luke Macfarlane and Connor Jessup. All-Canadian, all gay, all day.

god eichner is disgusting

luke is a real cutie though

R6 shut up faggot

Who's Your Daddy, not Whose...

Soon to be re-titled "Beauty and the Beast.: The Gay Update"

I wonder If Luke knows that the producer of this movie is a homophobic pos...

He (the producer) supports that gay men is attracted to pussy and thinks that a penis in a vagina is gay sex.