Bowen Yang and Joel Kim Booster play best friends on vacation in a gay hot spot in the comedy film “Fire Island”. (Photo by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for Viacom/Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic)
Bowen Yang and Joel Kim Booster are set to start filming their modern day, gay film adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice.
Variety reported that Fire Island will follow the adventures of two best friends (Yang and Booster) who are on vacation at the gay hot spot – which is located off the shore of Long Island – “with the help of cheap rosé and a cadre of eclectic friends”.
Yang, who joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2019, shared his excitement and, of course, a joke about the project on Instagram. He posted a picture of the headline from Variety which boasts that he and Booster will “top” the film.
Bowen Yang wrote on Instagram “I’m going to WHAT??” along with the thinking face emoji.
Variety described the film as a modern-day “take on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice” – a classic tale that apparently can be adapted into any format.
Joel Kim Booster, who wrote the film’s original script, apparently has a deep love for the English literary icon. In a 2018 interview with Huffington Post, Booster shared that he bonded with his mum over Jane Austen, and he even had an Austen-inspired tattoo.
He added that his mum introduced him to the author at a young age, and he believed her work is relevant to the modern LGBT+ community.
“Pride and Prejudice feels so relevant to gay social mores,” Booster explained. “Whenever I see that reflected in a Victorian novel, that’s so funny to me.”
The film will be directed by Andrew Ahn, who also directed 2016’s Spa Night. Filming will start in August on Fire Island and in neighbouring New York City, the report added.
Ahn described the movie as his “Jurassic World” and his “Eternals” on Twitter. He wrote: “A gay Pride and Prejudice on Fire Island with [Joel Kim Booster] and Bowen Yang!”
THIS IS MY JURASSIC WORLD. THIS IS MY ETERNALS. A GAY PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ON FIRE ISLAND WITH @ihatejoelkim AND BOWEN YANG! https://t.co/CEdp4jNND5
— Andrew Ahn (@AndrewAhnFilms) June 30, 2021
According to Variety, Fire Island will release exclusively on Hulu in the US, and it will stream on Disney Plus’ Star brand globally.