Following their work together on the Oscar-winning drama, Franco optioned the New York Times article My Ex-Gay Friend, on which I Am Michael would be based, and Van Sant suggested he hire Kelly to adapt it. Franco was playing Harvey Milk’s much younger lover in the film Kelly acted as the editor’s assistant. (The film is slated to open in the US in January, two years after its debut at the Sundance film festival.)įranco first became acquainted with Kelly on the set of Gus Van Sant’s gay civil rights drama Milk. The pair had previously collaborated on Kelly’s first project, I Am Michael, another true story about a gay activist who denounced his homosexuality and became a Christian pastor. “He loves his scandalous stories, and every now and then, he likes his gay stories,” confides King Cobra writer and director Justin Kelly over breakfast in Los Angeles, hours before he flies to London for the film’s BFI London film festival screening.
