Gabrielle Union and Billy Porter are making our LGBTQ dreams come true! The duo is, according to Deadline, coming together for a queer teen comedy! Tentatively titled To Be Real, it’s part of Union’s production company I’ll Have Another Productions. And the deal set forth is between Union and Amazon Studios. Ryan Shiraki, known for On My Block and Awkward., has also reportedly written the script for the film.
What’s most exciting about To Be Real is the way that it’s described by Deadline and what its logline consists of. Basically, take all the good from Superbad and Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart and bring it together in an edgy and laugh-out-loud comedy about three high schoolers who go on a crazy adventure to attend their first New York Pride parade. Oh, and while you’re at, make the three teens queer. Which, if you’ve read our Queerly Not Straight column, you know that we’re all about representation in its many forms and then some.
Personally, this movie sounds like a dream come true. Being queer has always been a secondary thing in movies like Superbad and Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart. This time its front and center. There’s no hiding from it or playing it off as something else. These characters are queer and we’re hoping that Union and Porter’s involvement means that the cast of characters is also going to be diverse AF.
Union’s I’ll Have Another Productions will also produce To Be Real. And I’ll Have Another’s Kian Gass, Porter, and Shiraki are set to come on as EP’s. This isn’t the only project that I’ll Have Another Productions has taken on. They’ve optioned Tamara Winfrey-Harris’ book The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America. And it seems that according to Deadline it’s being developed into a 30-minute dramedy for television.
