Stanley Tucci Picked Colin Firth to Play Partner in Gay Drama

It seems like forever ago that we first heard about the upcoming romantic drama starring Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth. And ok maybe it was only a year ago but have you seen the past year?! Its felt like forever. And now, the film is getting its world premiere tomorrow!

Supernova, a British drama written and directed by Harry Macqueen, will have its world premiere at the San Sebastian International Film academy tomorrow. It has already been picked up by a French distributor, and other European distributors. As of yet, it has neither a North American distributor or premiere date.

The film stars Tucci and Firth as Sam and Tusker, respectively, partners of 20 years traveling England in an old RV. Tusker is suffering from early-onset dementia and forces them to ask and answer questions about their love in the context of the illness. According to a Deadline feature, the film may be unprecedented in that it stars gay characters in a plot that is not about their sexuality -- presumably, it is about their relationship but they suffer through no homophobia or have to answer any lingering questions predicated on the fact that theirs is a love between two men.

"It's just these two people, but the setting being the backdrop of the Lake District with its beautiful emptiness and vast space contrasted with this tiny space they live in in the van," Firth told Deadline. "It's just the two of them and it's all down to one person's feelings for another. For all the considerations and controversies that might surround the issues that the film addresses, in the end so many of those issues are about love, and that's what the entire focus of this film is." This, played by two actors who have known each other for just about as long as the characters have been in their fictionalized relationship.

If you were wondering how Firth and Tucci got paired in the roles, you can thank Tucci for that. After Macqueen asked him to look over the script, he passed it over to the actor who he first worked with on Conspiracy.

"I met him, we got on famously," Macqueen said of Tucci. "He said, 'Can we talk about who plays opposite me? Have you thought about Colin Firth, because I could get the script to him?' Of course, I said, 'That would be amazing.' And he said, 'Good, because I gave it to him yesterday and he read it and loves it and he wants to meet you.' It was quite extraordinary quickly it came together in the end." And we know what you're asking, but why?

"I thought your sensibility was right, and I thought I needed a great actor to do this with, and that's you," Tucci told Firth in the feature. "Also, because you're my friend, and we know each other so well, it seemed we could bring that to it; a history, that maybe two actors who didn't know each other couldn't bring." But it could have been interesting to see what two out, gay actors would have brought to it no?

Though Firth and Tucci have both had some really amazing turns playing gay roles onscreen -- Firth notably did A Single Man, and Mama Mia! while Tucci played in Burlesque and Devil Wears Prada -- neither is publicly known to be queer. And though we have no doubt that they treated the roles with empathy and turned out some truly heartfelt footage, one can only wonder what could have been.

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