On his new album, High Drama, pop star Adam Lambert covers hit by other artists, including Culture Club’s 1982 smash “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me.” The American Idol alum’s next project also finds the LGBTQ icon delving into the past while breaking new creative ground. He stars in this year’s Fairyland, an AIDS drama set mostly in 1970s and ’80s San Francisco.
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Lit Hub: Literary Dispatches from the 2023 Sundance Film Festival
As the first major festival of the year, Sundance has the honor of giving a first glimpse of what cinema has to offer in the forthcoming months. Making its return to Park City, Utah, after two years of virtual editions, Sundance’s expansive lineup features a blend of high-profile titles and low-key indies equally worthy of attention.
This year’s festival had much to offer in terms of literary adaptations, with source materials ranging from a graphic novel to a viral short story to a coming-of-age memoir.
Read MoreVulture: Fairyland Magicked Up a 1970s San Francisco
The thing about shooting a movie set in 1970s San Francisco in 2023 is that those two time periods are actually not the same. The world changes! So when Fairyland, a movie based on a memoir of the same name by Alysia Abbott about growing up with a gay dad during the height of the AIDS epidemic in San Fran, decided to shoot on location, the team had their work cut out for them. “San Francisco in the ’70s was the coolest thing to see in a movie,” said director Andrew Durham at the film’s Sundance premiere. “The production team did an incredible job at finding those places,” added Scoot McNairy, who plays Steve Abbott in the film.
Read MoreVariety: ‘Fairyland’ Looks Back at Gay Life in San Francisco and the AIDS Crisis That Changed Everything
When Andrew Durham was searching for financing for “Fairyland,” his film adaptation of Alysia Abbott’s memoir about growing up in San Francisco with her gay single father and the impact that the AIDS crisis had on the community of LGBTQ Bohemians who populated her world, he received a shocking rejection.
Read MoreVogue France: Que sait-on de Fairyland, le nouveau film produit par Sofia Coppola ?
Avec Fairyland, Sofia Coppola s’apprête à nous offrir un nouveau film sur le passage à l’âge adulte, plus connu sous le nom de coming-of-age movie en anglais. Surdouée du genre, elle l’a notamment exploré pour The Virgin Suicides en 1999 et The Bling Ring avec Emma Watson en 2013. C’est bien simple, Sofia Coppola est bel et bien la spécialiste incontestée pour donner vie à la mélancolie de cet âge, qui plus est lorsqu'elle est teintée d’une certaine détresse. En adaptant les mémoires d’Alysia Abbott publiés en 2013 (qui ont d'ailleurs été nommés choix de la rédaction du New York Times), la cinéaste mise sur une histoire aussi émouvante qu’importante.
Read Morei-D: Sofia Coppola's next movie is an 80s AIDS drama
Few filmmakers pin down the coming-of-age experience quite like Sofia Coppola. From The Virgin Suicides to The Bling Ring, she understands its melancholy and madness. It makes sense then, that the next project she’s opted to get involved with sees her return to familiar ground. Fairyland, which Sofia Coppola is producing, is an adaptation of the 2013 memoir of the same name. It tells the story of Alysia Abbott, a woman recalling her youth spent in San Francisco with her father, a bisexual man, in the 70s and 80s. Of course, the story intersects with the AIDS crisis, and how it affected her family.
Read MoreDeadline: ‘Borat’ Breakout Maria Bakalova Joins Sofia Coppola-Produced ‘Fairyland’
EXCLUSIVE: Maria Bakalova (Bodies Bodies Bodies) has joined the casts of Andrew Durham’s feature directorial debut Fairyland for American Zoetrope, and Jerry Seinfeld’s first film Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story for Netflix. Details as to the roles she’ll be playing in the features have not been disclosed, though we hear she’ll only be making a cameo in the latter.
Read MoreHollywood Reporter: Emilia Jones, Scoot McNairy Star in ‘Fairyland’ Adaptation for American Zoetrope
Coda star Emilia Jones and Scoot McNairy have nabbed lead roles in producer Sofia Coppola’s Fairyland adaptation for American Zoetrope, with director Andrew Durham having just wrapped production on his debut feature.
Read MoreSF Chronicle: ‘Digging your heroes out of trash cans’: Spotlighting gay writers who died of AIDS
GrubStreet: A Conversation with Boston Literary District Director Alysia Abbott
Spearheaded in part by GrubStreet's Eve Bridburg, the Boston Literary Cultural District was founded in 2014 to provide a window into Boston's literary history through tours and events...
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Alysia Named Director of Boston Literary District
This year, Alysia was named the Director of the Boston Literary District, the only literary cultural district in the country. Check out their list of events, and be sure to drop Alysia a line!
Read MoreFairyland Awarded the Madame Figaro "Prix de l’Héroïne Literary Prize
Interview with Society
Alysia Abbott, critique littéraire et journaliste américaine, est l’auteure de Fairyland. Une autobiographie où elle retrace son enfance aux côtés de son père, veuf et homosexuel, dans le San Francisco des années 70, bientôt adaptée au cinéma par Sofia Coppola.
Read MoreInterview with Gala Magazine
Sofia Coppola a décidé d’en faire un film. Mais il faut lire le récit – peut-être des « mémoires »- d’Alysia Abbott, la fille unique de Steve Abbott, poète gay, et d’une maman mannequin et féministe.
Read MoreThe New York Times: Adult Children of People with AIDS Take Their Memories Out of the Shadows
On a Thursday night in January, the atmosphere at the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in SoHo was heavy with nostalgia...
Read MoreWBUR's Here & Now: 'The Recollectors' Gives Voice To Children Who Lost Parents To AIDS
The Rumpus Interview with Alysia Abbott
In her New Yorker essay “A Memoir is not a Status Update,” Dani Shapiro articulates what every memoirist knows to be true...
Read MoreInterview with KQED Forum
Video Interview with Rain Taxi
In 2013 journalist Jessie Bennett sat down with Alysia Abbott in Boston to discuss her new book Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father, a vivid time capsule of growing up during the 1970s and 80s with a gay dad in San Francisco.
Read MoreInterview with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air
While these days it's not uncommon to meet children with gay parents, in the 1970s it was. Alysia Abbott was one of those kids.
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