Because, well, the people running the movies are old — or, at least, they have old ideas. Movie executives tend to have been in their jobs longer than their TV counterparts and are more likely to fall victim to staid thinking. ''It's been my experience that television has a much higher turnover rate in the executive arena,'' says Greg Berlanti, exec producer of Brothers & Sisters. Consequently, he says, TV execs ''are often much younger, and their attitudes about being gay can end up being much more relaxed.'' It's also true that TV has a leg up on movies when it comes to creating complex characters: It's got 22 hours per season to fill. ''You can explore the more mundane details of a person's life in television and therefore [homosexuality] can just seem more matter-of-fact,'' says Alan Ball, creator of Six Feet Under. Movies have to convey an entire narrative in two hours. Nuance is often the first thing to get cut. ''Hollywood is more comfortable with movies that show being gay as an affliction,'' says writer-director Alek Keshishian, best known for Madonna: Truth or Dare. ''We're still at that place where it's got to be a big dramatic, political angle.'' If you're going to be a major gay character in a movie, the movie has to be about being gay. You have to be the AIDS patient (Philadelphia) or the victim of violence (Boys Don't Cry), the closet case (Far From Heaven), or the tortured serial killer (Monster).
If you even get that far. Studios are increasingly in the business of making mega-budget event movies that will hit as many target demographics as possible. In that climate, it's impossible for a Hollywood suit to imagine, say, The Bourne Ultimatum stud Jason Bourne being casually keen on a cute male techie. ''Big studio fare is about being as broadly appealing as possible,'' says a top exec. ''Having Jason Bourne be gay would [mean having] Jason Bourne's dating life look different from 90 percent of the population's. Where's the upside in that decision?''
Ask the makers of The Birdcage, which grossed $124 million in 1996. Or the producers of the 1997 hit In & Out, which earned, at the time, the second-biggest September opening weekend ever. For decades now, gay-themed films have won plaudits and profits, proving that audiences will pay to see entertaining movies, gay content or no. But Hollywood still treats gay-themed hits as an exception rather than as harbingers of a changing rule. Other genres haven't been saddled with such a burden. Boyz N the Hood in 1991 inspired a stream of urban hits. And in 2002, Chicago proved that the once moribund movie musical could make serious money, opening the door to Dreamgirls, Hairspray, and the upcoming Sweeney Todd.
Brokeback could have done the same for gay film. It wasn't just a hit, but the first unabashed gay romance to cross over to mainstream audiences. It also obliterated an ancient Hollywood phobia that playing gay would kill an actor's career. Not only did stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal both score Oscar nominations, but Ledger is playing the Joker in next summer's Batman sequel, The Dark Knight. Gyllenhaal will be starring opposite Tobey Maguire in Brothers. ''It's been extraordinary,'' Gyllenhaal says of life post-Brokeback. ''It has taken me to a different place in my career. Nothing but wonderful, positive things have come out of that experience.''
NEXT PAGE: Where's the next high-profile gay movie script?
