Fire Island trailer sees Joel Kim Booster bring ‘gay Pride and Prejudice’ to the beach
Joel Kim Booster and Bowen Yang in Fire Island. (Hulu)
A gay adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice is about to hit our screens, and the first trailer for Fire Island promises to deliver a whole lot of love, laughs and hook-ups.
The Hulu flick, which stars Sunnyside Joel Kim Booster and SNL‘s Bowen Yang, is inspired by the classic Jane Austen novel and follows Noah (Booster) and his group of friends during a week-long vacation at the titular LGBT+ hotspot – which is located off the shore of Long Island.
When they arrive at their holiday spot, Noah’s best friend Howie (Yang) falls – both metaphorically and literally – for a handsome doctor, played by You‘s James Scully.
This leads Noah and Howie to meet the doctor’s group of friends, including a Mr Darcy figure played by How to Get Away with Murder‘s Conrad Ricamora, who soon begins to clash with Noah’s Elizabeth Bennet-esque character.
You already know how the story goes, but the film is sure to bring a fresh perspective to the famous story with an entirely LGBT+ cast, including Margaret Cho, Matt Rogers, Zane Phillips, Tomás Matos and Torian Miller.
The trailer even teases a cameo by RuPaul’s Drag Race star Peppermint as the friendship group deals with love triangles, hilarious moments and some friendship-testing situations.
Booster wrote the script for the film, which is directed by Andrew Ahn (Spa Night), because he believes Austen’s work is relevant to the modern LGBT+ community.
“Pride and Prejudice feels so relevant to gay social mores,” Booster explained to Huffington Post. “Whenever I see that reflected in a Victorian novel, that’s so funny to me.”
James Scully and Bowen Yang in Fire Island (Hulu)
In another interview with Vanity Fair, he added: “I want people – especially gay men, especially queer people – to walk away from the movie happy that they’re gay.
“I think that there are so many movies about the gay experience that are fraught with people who are unsure if they’re happy being gay or struggling with coming out…
“I want people to come away from this movie feeling the joy of our experiences and that it’s not all tragic. There are many of us out here living our lives joyfully.”
This is the latest queer version of Pride and Prejudice after the 2017 feature film Before the Fall offered a modern retelling involving two men falling in love in Virginia.
Fire Island will be available to stream on Hulu in the US from 3 June and will be available will on Disney Plus’ Star brand globally.
