I’m not alone in counting gay movie, My Own Private Idaho, as teen inspiration. The lovely actor James Franco tells The New York Times in the clip below that this movie made him want to act – could the Milk star get any more gay -friendly?

Yes he could! He stars in what’s looking like one of the most interesting gay movies coming out in 2010: Howl, a bold and imaginative part-biopic of gay, American poet Allen Ginsberg.

The movie is written and directed by gay, Oscar-winning, documentary filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (The Celluloid Closet). It mixes animation, Ginsberg’s poetry and the real-life events surrounding a 1957 court trial brought on because his published work, Howl and Other Peoms, name dropped – OH MY GOD! – homosexuality and drug taking. A gay, substance using poet? Surely not.

James Franco plays Ginsberg as a young man discovering himself in New York City. Can’t wait. Franco is quickly becoming one of my favourite actors (I can nearly forgive him for the Spiderman movies).