Bruce LaBruce's gay zombie flick L.A.
Zombie will launch a new gay distribution company in Italy,
Variety reported.
The all-gay film distribution company
Queer Frame is a first for Italy where gay and lesbian-themed films
have struggled to find outlets.
Turin-based parent company Atlantide
has acquired rights to distribute the works of mainstream directors
such as Gus Van Sant (Milk), who is openly gay, Michel Gondry
(Be Kind Rewind) and Mika Kaurismaki (The House of
Branching Love), but will launch Queer Frame with Director
LaBruce's sexually explicit flick.
L.A. Zombie stars French gay
porn star Francois Sagat as a schizophrenic gay zombie who believes he
can bring the dead back to life by having sex with them.
Cosimo Santoro, head of distribution
for Atlantide, told Variety that the distribution of
gay-themed films was long overdue in Italy.
“It's been a scarcely represented
market segment here, because distributors have been unwilling to
[take a] risk on these titles,” he said.
LaBruce's 1996 Hustler White
attracted national headlines for featuring Madonna's then-boyfriend
Tony Ward as a male prostitute working the streets of Los Angeles.