On the eve of its North American Premiere at the Silverdocs Film Festival, MAKING THE BOYS has been picked up. First Run Features announced that it has acquired all North American rights to the film directed by Crayton Robey and produced by Douglas Tirola and Susan Bedusa of 4th Row Films.
MAKING THE BOYS tells the story of Mart Crowley’s groundbreaking play “The Boys in the Band” – from overnight sensation on Broadway, to Hollywood’s first gay movie, to cultural landmark and worldwide phenomenon – all the while having a complicated and sometimes controversial relationship with the gay community. No one could have guessed the impact that a small Off-Broadway production would have on the social climate of the 1960s…not to mention how important and monumental it was to gay people at the time, many of whom were still in the closet.
MAKING THE BOYS features illuminating and entertaining footage from the period, interwoven with extensive interviews with Crowley; William Friedkin, the Oscar-winning director of the BOYS movie; and a host of luminaries inluding Dominick Dunne, Tony Kushner, Terrence McNally, Edward Albee, Dan Savage, Robert Wagner and many others. It also tracks the trajectories of the original cast members of the play and the movie.
First Run Features plans a fall theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles, to be followed by a slow roll out across North America.