Premature Trailerulation: Tom of Finland
Friday, April 12, 2013 at 11:10AM Thanks to reader "Txus" for alerting me to this tease for a new biopic Tom. It's an unusual teaser in that the movie isn't even filming yet and isn't eyeing release plans until 2015. It's a preemie! Are they trying to drum up financial producer's interest (?) because audience interest won't work this far in advance; you can't purchase tickets two years ahead of time.
Still, I will say that the filthy smirk on actor Olli Rahkonen's face seems like a good match for the Man in question. Tom of Finland, for those of you who need a primer on gay history, was once not the name of a clothing line, but an infamous erotic cartoonist. Tom (Touko Laksonnen) was doing his X rated thing when being gay was still criminal pretty much everywhere.
The cheeky sexy teaser and more commentary is after the jump (and not safe for work)
This will probably make me sound like a prude, but I've never been a huge fan of his work (which is not to say I dislike it) because I find outrageously hyper-sexualization of female or male bodies to be weirdly off-putting and rarely as sexy as its intended -- when boobs or dicks are inflated past the laws of physics all I can think of is back pain or how hard it would be to find clothing to wear.
one of his tamer imagesBut back to the movie -- Tom of Finland is actually kind of a great subject character for a biopic. The topic is unique and the subject is controversial. Consider this confusing loaded statement he made about his art as a soldier during World War II:
In my drawings I have no political statements to make, no ideology. I am thinking only about the picture itself. The whole Nazi philosophy, the racism and all that, is hateful to me, but of course I drew them anyway – they had the sexiest uniforms!
How can you pose apolitically when your very existence, and your sexuality, are so politicized?
But anyway... enough with the biopic genre being dominated by rock stars with drug problems or politicians with scandals. There are other types of people in the world who made it go round. BUT a warning to the filmmakers: if this isn't obscene (to many) there is no point in making it. Will the filmmakers have the guts to go the Full Ubiquitous Hyper-Sexualized Monty?
LGBT, Tom of Finland, biopics
Reader Comments (19)
So that's the reason for my bad back!
LOL
Open arms and a wink. I don't even need to scroll down. I'm a yes.
I give great back rubs for all you men with sore backs.
(Now this is exactly the sort of messages Tom of Finland would enjoy!)
Give it to Todd Haynes!!!
Color me interested...VERY interested.
This looks good to me. Playful and sexy. But I agree about the art. Uber dicks do not turn me on...on paper. ;)
The idea of Todd Haynes is great, but a little bit too obvious. I'd like to see a woman directing it. We're used to see how some male directors are turned on by their muses, male or female, but it'd very unusual to see a female look at the sexualization of men.
Never heard of this person but this trailer for a phantom movie is obviously cheap and they need a star investor/s to get it look better than this—Van Sant, Cameron Mitchell, Bryan Singer, or Ryan Murphy—they have the clout to make this into an event instead of the forgotten footnote it's likely to be as it stands.
everyone -- but it's a FINNISH movie about a FINNISH man so it would kinda suck to give it to an American. Let a Finnish star emerge with it. many of the greatest directors in the world are not from the US or England so we should support emerging filmmakers from anywhere and everywhere (if they have the goods that is)
He's a Finnish man who made a name for himself in America. Non-American actors playing Americans, I don't see the problem with bringing in US film personalities to give the production some heft. Primarily behind the scenes. And no I don't mean Weinstein Co.
Y E S! The teaser is funny and awesome
Tom of Finland cartoons are sometimes funny and sometimes erotic.
Female director for a gay controversial movie? Im in. Lets sse:
Mary Harron ( American Psycho)
Lynne Ramsay ( We Need To Talk About Kevin)
Andrea Arnold ( Wuthering Heigts)
the gents if they dare:
David Fincher
Wong Kar Wai
Quentin Tarantino
Andrea Arnold, please. I can breathe sex when I see her movies.
Bigelow. If you really watch her work, the men are beautiful and very sexy even if violent. She would tear this up.
It plays like a short film, color me intrigued.
I find Bigelow's recent work very asexual...
I just realized that James Franco is gonna try to direct this.
cal -- bite your tongue! (and also, yes. that will probably be threatened at some point. even if only in a remake capacity)
i don't care who directs it..i am there.
That trailer is perfect, even if it's existence is the biggest WTF ever. LOVE the idea of a Tom of Finland biopic. Let the Finnish do what they want with it, as long as it is as cheeky as that trailer!
But as long as we're fantasizing, I LOVE the idea of Wong Kar-Wai directing this. And the thought of that made me wonder what a biopic (in general, but this one specifically) directed by Terrence Malick would look like. Can you imagine?!?!?