“BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN” SET FOR DECEMBER RELEASE: The film “Brokeback Mountain,” based on an Annie Proulx story from her collection “Close Range: Wyoming Stories,” will be released Dec. 9, according to the Focus Features web site. Here’s the film summary, co-written by the screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana: “A raw, powerful story of two young men, a Wyoming ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy, who meet in the summer of 1963 sheepherding in the harsh, high grasslands of contemporary Wyoming and form an unorthodox yet life-long bond--by turns ecstatic, bitter and conflicted.” The movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger (as the two lovers) and is directed by Ang Lee, who also directed “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Ride with the Devil,” probably the best movie ever made about the American Civil War. Strangely enough, this is the second major Hollywood film set for a fall 2005 release featuring contemporary cowboys and/or ranch hands and based on a Wyoming writer’s work. Mark Spragg’s novel “An Unfinished Life,” directed by Lasse Hallstrom and starring Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopez, is due in theatres Sept. 9. Do I sense a hot new trend?
