Check out the first photo of Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to any substantial political office in the history of the planet (according to Time Magazine). Gus Van Sant is filming the biopic in San Francisco, where parts of the Castro District have been retrofitted back to the 1970’s (check back to our posting from last week for more storefront photos). Tinobear (Valentin Aguirre) snapped the photo above from a sign outside the retrofitted set of Harvey Milk’s campaign headquarters (seen below). Click to enlarge.
Harvey Milk (1930-1978) was an activist and politician, and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in America; in 1977, he was voted to the city supervisors’ board of San Francisco. The following year, both he and the city’s mayor George Moscone were shot to death by another city supervisor, Dan White. Mr. Milk was previously the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary feature The Times of Harvey Milk (1984), directed by Rob Epstein and produced by Richard Schmiechen. Milk is the first non-documentary feature to explore the man’s life and career.
Update: Enahmanson snapped this photo of Penn as Harvey Milk while visiting the set.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:56 am
He looks like Manson.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:58 am
I agree Hunter..
Helter Skelter.
January 30th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Cool… Jello Biafra spoke about him in one of his early spoken word albums…
This is an absolutely amazing story…ie:”Twinkie defense”?!?!
I can’t wait to see this.
January 30th, 2008 at 11:33 am
I’d be a lot more excited about this movie if they actually cast someone who fit the part better. Oh, and let’s not forget this:
Sean Penn = Pretentious Douchebag
Harvey Milk = Not a Douchebag
Seriously, what could be a great pic is going to be an over-hyped, overblown, heavy-handed piece of tripe reminiscent of CRASH. I really wish Penn would stop making movies (or at least stop taking himself and everyone else so seriously — “Adrien Brody is an actor, and one of our finest…” Anyone?)
January 30th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Hey cinemaniac1979 –
Hope your ability to evaluate movies that haven’t been shot yet is better than your memory: It was Jude Law whom Sean Penn defended from a Chris Rock one-liner at the Oscars, not Adrian Brody….
January 30th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Hey Vic,
Thanks for the correction. I openly admit that I have better things to remember than some snarky comment made by a pompous jackass in defense of what was obviously a good-natured joke (I do remember that Chris Rock ended the bit with a punchline at his own expense).
Not saying it might not be a bad movie, I’m just saying that no matter how good it is, IMHO it can only be hurt by Penn’s involvement– mainly because I can’t stand that guy.
January 30th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Although, he did punch out a paparazzo on at least one occasion… so maybe he can’t be all bad.
January 30th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I posted a few photos of the filming with Gus Van Sant, Emile Hirsch and Sean Penn here:
http://www.gaycities.com/outthere/129/milk-sean-penn-emile-hirsch/
February 5th, 2008 at 2:35 am
As one of the many extras on the Feb. 4th shoot outside the Castro Theatre, I’ve got to hand it to the production folks who got us all inside the theatre first to see The Times of Harvey Milk before the filming of two of the reinacted marches took place. It really helped to set the mood for the extras who were supposed to look confused and/or angry at various times. Although we were lucky that it didn’t rain, the temperature grew colder as the hours passed but the crowd was so enthusiastic that time didn’t seem to move slowly at all.
Many of the people who came to help fill out the crowd scenes had actually been in the original marches and their reaction to this recreation was palpable.
I feel privileged to have taken part in something so important finally coming to the screen that will help to educate a larger audience about this significant human being and his courage to put his life on the line in the 70’s. It’s amazing how many similarities there are to the things that Milk talked about and his promotion and use of the word “change”, and what we’re hearing during this 2008 race for the Presidency. Those were urgentb times then and they are urgent times now.
February 17th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
You know who would have been perfect… thirty years ago, Dustin Hoffman, he’s got a smile to match that unforgettable feature of Harvey’s
March 17th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Keep in mind that many people making this film are doing it with people who actually knew, loved and respected Milk. They are on board with Penn as Milk. I don’t think they would be happy with thie casting if they agreed with most of your comments.
June 16th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Penn is a powerful and meticulous actor; Van Sant is a brave and early pioneer of open, provactive stories; calling people vile names and hurling insults at something that hasn’t even been released…what are your credentials? Jees, give them a CHANCE to get the story right before you go off on these ugly diatribes. Aren’t we about equality, equal chances, equal time? You want it, you gotta give it too.
Michael Donnici, 47
Kansas City Missouri