Luca Guadagnino is showing no signs of slowing down. Between working on a Call Me By Your Name sequel, directing a Scarface remake, adapting Lord of the Flies for the silver screen, and making his first leap into episodic television, the director has announced that he’s working on a feature adaptation of of Matt Tyrnauer’s 2017 documentary, Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, about legendary Hollywood figure Scotty Bowers – and Seth Rogen’s writing the script.
The film will tell the true story of Bowers, a World War II veteran who becomes a gay male hustler in Hollywood in the 40s and ending in the 80s during the early days of the AIDS epidemic. Famously operating his services out of a gas station in Hollywood, Bowers was the inspiration behind Ryan Murphy’s Emmy-nominated Netflix series, Hollywood, earlier this year.
Tyrnauer’s original 2017 documentary was based on Bower’s book, Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars, a scandelous look into the sex lives of some of Hollywood’s most famous actors, like Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.
Joining Rogen on the script is his writing/producing partner Evan Goldberg. “We got a call that Luca wanted to talk to us because he was a huge fan of Sausage Party,” Rogen told Insider, referring to the R-rated animated comedy Rogen and Goldberg made in 2016.
“Very specifically because of Sausage Party and some of the messaging in it,” Goldberg added.
Sausage Party follows a sausage named Frank (voiced by Rogen) and his other food friends at a supermarket who realise that their sole existence is to be eaten. “He thought we were the perfect guys to write the movie,” Rogen said. “And clearly we are not uncomfortable with dealing with overtly sexual material.”
The Scotty Bowers project hasn’t been written yet, which means we can expect a bit of a wait before anything materialises. In the meantime, Guadagnino’s fashion documentary, Salvatore – Shoemaker of Dreams is at Venice Film Festival in September.