Avan Jogia and Beau Mirchoff in “Now Apocalypse”, photo by Katrina Marcinowski, Starz via YouTube
Gregg Araki is a Gay Japanese-American filmmaker who represents the very essence of 1980s-1990s New Queer Cinema movement. His film Kaboom (2010) was the first winner of the Cannes Film Festival Queer Palm Award.
His first film is Three Bewildered People In The Night (1987). Made for only $5,000 and using a stationary camera, it’s the story of a romance between a video artist, her boyfriend and her gay friend. His third film, The Living End, made for $20,000, became a cult hit and a landmark queer film.
Because of his tiny budgets, Araki shot these early films on the fly without proper permits. Despite the financial constraints, Araki’s films received critical acclaim. He received awards from the Locarno International Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the Sundance Film Festival.
Totally Fucked Up (1993), The Doom Generation (1995), and Nowhere (1997) are his trio films about young people’s alienation, ambiguous sexuality and aggression. They starred better known actors, such as: Rose McGowan, Margaret Cho, Parker Posey, Guillermo Díaz, Ryan Phillippe, and Heather Graham. The three films are now considered cult classics.
Araki on set, Tartan releasing via YouTube
Following some missteps (an MTV series that never aired) and short hiatus, Araki was back on the map with the critically acclaimed Mysterious Skin (2004) based on the 1995 Scott Heim novel of the same name. It is a dark story that stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt about boy prostitutes and alien abductions, and it is a very, very good film.
The fresh, funny stoner comedy Smiley Face (2007), has a cast that includes Anna Faris, Adam Brody, and John Krasinski.
Like so many other talented filmmakers, Araki has turned to television and his new project Now Apocalypse, which promises to be a nihilistic candy-colored comedy in 10-episodes on Starz. It stars hotties Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf, Jane The Virgin) and Avan Jogia as lovers. See James St. James‘ piece on the casting here.
Posey and Jogia Screenshot via YouTube
I have I hopes for this one considering its pedigree: It is executive produced by Academy Award-winning Steven Soderbergh, whose forays into television include the superb The Knick on Cinemax, The Girlfriend Experience on Starz, the western Godless on Netflix and the interactive murder mystery Mosaic on HBO. Now Apocalypse seems to have lots of nudity, queer sex, and lizard people disguised as humans.
Araki:
It’s like a queer Sex And The City meets Twin Peaks. With an alien.
Araki has been honored with the Filmmaker on the Edge Award at the 2006 Provincetown International Film Festival. In 2013, Araki was recognized by the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City with a retrospective, God Help Me: Gregg Araki.
Now Apocalypse begins airing on Starz on March 10.
