Holden Sheppard’s Invisible Boys sequel is being adapted for TV, as his acclaimed queer novel Yeah The Boys is being fast-tracked into an eight-episode series for international release. As production company Deadset Pictures tease a rawer, dirtier, more bogan Aussie version of Heated Rivalry.
At every signing event of Sheppard’s Yeah The Boys, fans had one question: Will the novel be adapted for television or film?
Well, now we have our answer.
The TV adaptation of Invisible Boys was produced by Stan and screened last year to worldwide acclaim.
The series followed a group of gay teens who live in the remote WA coastal town of Geraldton in 2017 during the brutal same-sex marriage plebiscite and was nominated for a Peabody. Yeah the Boys follows the same central characters who are now in their mid-20s.
It has been less than two months since Sheppard released the novel, and just wrapped a national tour promoting it, but he says “WA’s urban and gay spaces will be showcased like never before,” with the news of its TV adaptation.
“I’m so pumped to see it,” he told The West Australian, “It’s always been important to me that screen adaptations of my books are filmed locally in WA using our WA talent and locations”.
Related content:
‘Rawer, dirtier, a bit bogan and much more local’
Yeah the Boys picks up seven years after Charlie, Zeke and Hammer have escaped their rural hometown.
Charlie’s fighting spirit has faded as he struggles to make it as a punk musician in Perth, Zeke is lost amidst the closeted life and conventional success of his strict Italian parents, and Hammer thinks he has it all.
A closeted as a famous star football player, he can’t stand the AFL stuffing diversity initiatives like Pride Round down everyone’s throats. When he says something about it and suddenly realises someone knows his secret, all hell breaks loose.
“Unapologetic and unforgettable, this is the story of three boys finding their way back to each other, and finding their own ways to become men,” the book’s blurb said.
WA-based production company Deadset Pictures secured screen rights to the acclaimed adult novel, with co-founder Steve Pennells saying that a Yeah the Boys series can be Australia’s version of Heated Rivalry, “but rawer, dirtier, a bit bogan and much more local”.
He shared that the popularity of Heated Rivalry has shown there’s “a huge audience for gay sports drama when it’s sexy, emotional and unashamedly mainstream.”
“It’s made it easier for us,” Pennells said, “Heated Rivalry surprised everyone and showed that there is a market for it if it’s told well.”
“This is footy, not hockey. It’s Perth and Geraldton, not Toronto. It’s Pride Round, locker rooms, country-town shame, Northbridge at night and the brutal Australian pressure on men to perform straightness even when it’s killing them.”
Invisible BoysImage: Stan
A far cry from Invisible Boys
Pennells said that Yeah the Boys is “a story that could only come out of Western Australia,” and will put local creatives in focus.
“The heat, the distance, the footy culture, the country-town history, the gay spaces, all of that is baked into the book. It’s Perth as Perth, not substituting itself for somewhere else.”
The screen adaptation of Heated Rivalry was a huge hit for streaming service HBO MAX.
Creator Jacob Tierney has made no secret that US production companies wanted to tone the series down, cutting back on the sex. Tierney walked away from the deal to retain creative control, producing the uncensored hit with Canada’s Crave network instead.
Anyone who has read Yeah The Boys, or even just the first chapter, will know it is a far cry from the Invisible Boys that readers and STAN viewers experienced.
“The first chapter opens in a gay bathhouse, and it gets dirtier from there,” Sheppard said, “It’s nice to be able to lean into what it’s like to be gay in your 20s in the big city and bring it to the modern era.”
View this post on Instagram
‘I was absolutely blown away by Steve and Dan’s vision’
“There is such a sanitisation of the gay experience, especially for gay men,” Sheppard said.
“We are very sexual and often in TV shows or books, the scene gets cut short when we’re about to have sex, or the camera pans away, or we’re presented as desexed, clean and wholesome.”
“It’s so that straight people will tolerate us and maybe have empathy for us, but I have been very intentional with Yeah the Boys. This book is a big punk resistance to that. The very first two pages are a manifesto, saying we are who we are.”
“We’re horny, dirty male f**king men, and that’s who we really are. Accept us for that, not just for the version of us you want us to be.”
View this post on Instagram
Sheppard will serve as an Executive Producer on the production.
He shared that he’s “so stoked to be working with Deadset Pictures on this project.”
“I was absolutely blown away by Steve and Dan’s vision for Yeah the Boys. I knew immediately my book was in the right hands to be adapted authentically in this cultural moment.”
“I’m so grateful that the characters of Zeke, Charlie and Hammer have received so much love from Australian audiences. I hope they will be as excited as I am to see this chapter of their lives on screen.”
For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, and community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
