The Mayor of Castro Street was the project I had wanted to see Bryan Singer do for years instead of wallowing in superheroes. I suspected that Singer was a real talent, but he never managed to elevate the X-Men films into something more meaningful, and the less said about Superman Returns*, the better. I was looking forward to Singer returning to a project that wouldn’t get stuck in the genre ghetto; that film ended up being Valkryie, which looks like agreeable silliness in the end. It will likely never be The Mayor of Castro Street, as Singer took too long with it and Gus Van Sant swooped in and started his own competing biopic of Harvey Milk, America’s first openly gay politician.

That film, called Milk, has been shooting in San Fransisco for a couple of weeks with Sean Penn as Milk and Emile Hirsch as his boyfriend. Now Van Sant is trying to get his former rival for a Milk movie, Bryan Singer, in the film as well. Van Sant tells Willamete Week that he’s reached out to Singer to do a cameo, and that the director has agreed, time permitting. “He said that he will, but scheduling is hard,” says Van Sant.

It would be cool for Singer to show up, and I think it’s pretty great of Van Sant to offer that olive branch. And I’ll tell you the truth – I’m happy that it’s Van Sant making the movie in the end. I would like to see Singer somehow rescue his reputation, but this story is now in the hands of a much, much, much better filmmaker.

*Now. I loved talking shit on it in the day.