Russell Tovey and Hunger Games’ Tom Blyth to star in new gay drama
Actors Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey will star in queer movie Plainclothes. (Michael Buckner/Variety/John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images)
Russell Tovey and Tom Blyth are set to star in Plainclothes, a new queer love story inspired by true events.
Blyth, most recently seen as Coriolanus Snow in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, and Tovey, the star of Looking, Angels in America, Pride and the BBC drama Years and Years, head up the film’s cast.
Plainclothes is set to go into production in Syracuse, New York, and follows an uncover police officer out to entrap and arrest members of the LGBTQ+ community in the 1990s. But, in an unexpected turn of events, he begins to be drawn to one of the men he targets.
The story has echoes of human rights group OutRage! protesting against the Metropolitan Police over their entrapment of gay men in the 1990s. Last year, the Met admitted to “failings of the past”.
The new film, written and directed by Carmen Emmi, will be produced by Arthur Landon, Colby Cote and Eric Podwall, Variety reported.
“Plainclothes is a heart-felt story that deals with internal conflict, family and the complexities of sexual identity in the face of societal and personal expectations,” Cote and Landon said.
“Carmen Emmi is one of those unique talents who truly deserves a platform for his creative ingenuity. We are excited to bring his first screenplay to life with this incredible cast.”
Tovey has previously spoken about how he and others of his generation have “Section 28 in their blood”, having grown up in Margaret Thatcher’s Britain.
The legislation banned the so-called promotion of homosexuality by schools and local authorities. It was repealed in Scotland in June 2000, and taken off the statute books across the rest of the UK in November 2003.
