I know some examples of snigger-inducing slogans and advertising can be blamed on cultural and language differences, but really, what where the marketing team at Warner Bros. thinking?

Oh and Justin Timberlake is the voice of Boo-Boo – seriously! Always suspected he wanted to do a bear.

“I wanted to write a Jennifer Aniston movie,” director JC Calciano tells NBC, “but for guys.” Why set your sights so low?

Happily for us, and for Calciano, he’s hit a much higher note with new gay rom-com Is It Just Me? Steadily generating buzz after a sell-out L.A. premiere and set for a New York theatrical release in October, Calciano has a hit on his hands with his first gay movie.

This sexy and smart talking film centres around a 30-ish gay guy with lots of romantic notions but too much self-doubt. He meets the man of his dreams online and things go well; a meet-up is arranged, but then Blaine (played by Nicholas Downs) realises he’s been logged in using his gay roommate’s profile by mistake and the potential love of his life has him pegged as a good-looking go-go dancer.

Hardly an original plot device, but that doesn’t really matter – straight rom-coms have had their fair share of mistaken identity love stories; time for a gay version.

NBC also interviews lead actor Downs in their article and there’s a touching bit about how making this movie helped him out of the closet, but he’s not sure if his family will be queueing up to watch it at their local theatre.

Is It Just Me? will be released on DVD later in the year, so keep an eye out for this one. Looks promising, but will it be as good as The Truth About Cats and Dogs?

The battle is won, but the war continues… yesterday’s ruling that California’s gay marriage ban, Proposition 8, is unconstitutional is a welcome milestone and a paean to rational thinking, but away from the courts there is still much to change and, as always, it will come down to passionate and dedicated individuals.

A film in the works titled Inspired: The Voices Against Prop 8 tells the stories behind the recent resurgence of the gay rights movement in California, spurred into action by the incredible inequality and homophobia of Proposition 8. These are people who had never held a banner in their life, but were so incensed by the voting through of this vindictive law that it became a call to action, and their actions have now been rewarded.

Inspired: The Voices Against Prop 8 is also asking for support to bring these stories to the screen: the film has finished shooting and now director Charlie Gage and producer Ian McIntosh need to raise $5000 to complete editing on the feature length documentary. They’re already a quarter of the way there and are offering various goodies depending on the size your donation.

I can’t recall a gay porn actor who’s been able to carve out a successful movie career post screwing on screen, but French stud with the Lego hairline, Francois Sagat, might be about to pull it off…

Sagat has not one, but two proper movies in contention for the top prize at the Locarno Film Festival which starts tomorrow (4 August). There’s the widely reported L.A. Zombie which has already gained notoriety for getting banned by timid Australian censors. His other film is titled Men at Bath, which might sound like one of Sagat’s skin flicks, but is actually an arty piece of gay drama directed by French auteur Christophe Honoré.

Honoré is highly regarded in his native country as a writer/director/playright and has penned a lot of stuff with gay themes. Men at Bath is a very explicit look at the bitter end of a gay relationship. Sagat plays one of the two lovers who can’t quite break the bond they share despite ending up on different continents and finding some new bed mates.

There’s a trailer here, but it’s definitely not safe for work (or Australian censors).

Award winning gay filmmaker Tom Murray sadly passed away last Thursday aged 65.

Tom came to documentary filmmaking late in life, after a varied career that included cab driving, the Peace Corps and construction. He certainly made up for lost time: after picking up a video camera and making his first documentary, Farm Family, in 2004 he averaged a film a year.

Farm Family traces the hidden side of gay life in rural America, those people choosing to live outside the gay-safe metropolitan areas. It tells funny, surprising and sometimes frightening stories of gay rodeos, hermits, queer families and gay dairy farmers.

The less visible and often harsh side of gay life is a theme that Murray frequently returned to, becoming more of an activist as his love for documentary filmmaking grew. Other themes he explored include the Military’s ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy; gay-hate murder and sex-change reversals. With a compassionate approach he was able to bring a very human face to some tough subjects.

At the time of his death Tom Murray was working on his next gay film, a look into spirituality in the LGBT community, but it’s unknown whether this project entitled Queerituality will now be released.

Regardless of whether it does, Murray leaves behind an important legacy and his films have helped to shed light on topics and communities that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. In his own words:

I’d like to think, 20 years from now, we’ll look back and say, ‘I can’t believe we treated people like that.’”

Another movie star comes out as bisexual… yawn. Actually, despite all the headlines today about Mad Max actor Tom Hardy claiming to have had sexual relationships with men, there’s a whole lot of smoke behind the story.

Reading the scoop on other blogs you might be left with the impression that sexy hellraiser Hardy made this ‘gay sex’ revelation in a heart-to-heart with UK celeb gossiper Now Magazine, but they’ve actually ripped the quotes regarding Tom’s sexuality from a late 2008 interview with Attitude mag.

So a chameleon-like actor implying to a gay magazine that he dabbled as a youngster in little more than some ‘behind the bike sheds’ gay hand job action is hardly surprising given the audience and Hardy has the kind of intense bad boy reputation where nothing would be very surprising about him and probably nothing much would dent his cred with mainstream movie fans.

Next!

Undead gay art porn movie L.A. Zombies has been scaring up the most attention from gay news tubes on its rampage towards Toronto International Film Festival, but another gay film is quietly preparing to show for the first time to the crowds at the major movie fest.

Beginners is from director Mike Mills (Thumbsucker) and stars Ewan McGregor (who must be glad at least one gay film he’s made might get seen) as a son coming to terms with two big revelations from his 71-year-old father – one that McDad is a big gay and is in a relationship with a much younger man.

Dad is played by Christopher Plummer (hopefully in a restrained performance) and his young lover has the face of Goran Visnjic (remember him from ER and that Madonna video?).

This is only Mills’ second feature, but the director/designer/graphic artist is a talent to watch and this unassuming gay movie could do big things – or it could be rubbish; that’s the joy of film festivals.

I don’t have a trailer for Beginners, so here’s a music promo for a just wrapped gay movie called Buffering, instead – more on that soon. Tune = catchy.

Sending up ’80s buddy cop movies and highlighting the obvious homoerotic undertone is hardly a new thing – even honorary gay bear Kevin Smith’s done it – but this music video from new dance act Grum is kind of funny/sweet and has a hypnotic soundtrack.