Entertainment Weekly 54
Preview
Sex between men, women, and anyone indeterminate
who wanted to join in, reflected in glitter balls, choreographed to a disco
beat, and enlivened with cocaine - just another '70s night at New York's
notorious Studio 54. Twenty years later, Miramax is hoping such revelry
will lure audiences to the velvet rope of 54, a fictionalized account
of the center of the disco universe. Think Bosch's The Garden
of Earthly Delights with spangles, sequins, and Seconal.
Myers, in his first dramatic role,
plays the late Steve Rubell, the club's real-life coked-up co-owner, who
turns innocent Phillippe (I Know What You Did Last Summer) into
a debauched stud. Meyer and Hayek are a husband-and-wife busboy and
coat-check girl who watch the comings and goings of New York's glitterati
- including a Bianca Jaggerish socialite (Ward) and a sullen soap star
(Campbell).
First-time feature director Christopher
persuaded Miramax to finance the project on the basis of two gay-themed
shorts he'd directed that won festival-circuit acclaim. When the
studio asked for a more mainstream script, he toned some things down, including
a love affair between two young men. Still, plenty of eye-catching
details remain: Meyer and Phillippe are clothed in tiny shorts or
unbuttoned jeans, sans shirts. "I wanted to die every day in wardrobe,"
says Meyer, who shares his first on-screen kiss with longtime friend Phillippe.
"As soon as a take was over, Ryan and I ran for our robes."
Miramax approved the script but is
said to fear that 54 is still not mainstream enough. "Miramax
ordered a pretty edgy film; we gave them a pretty edgy film; they're going
to release a pretty edgy film." (Aug. 7)
THE LOWDOWN The ShoWest promo
reel - too edgy for theaters - declared 54 "the sexiest movie
of the year," but some of that may get cut to avoid an NC-17.
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