OK, the big movie of the weekend is the big-screen adaptation of the hit teen novel Twilight. But if the "Team Edward" fanatics and their mothers have bought up all the tickets, there are other films of queer interest opening this weekend.

Find out which after the break!

Since we're so excited about Showtime's development of Perry Moore's gay superhero adventure Hero, we figured we'd try to make the wait go faster with our picks for who we think should be cast for the lead roles. So, after scouring the cast lists of various teen dramas, here are a few thoughts on who I see as Thom Creed and pals...

Thom Creed:
Kellan Lutz or Mitch Hewer

Our hero, Thom, is a teen who should have it all (he's athletic, smart and attractive) but whose easy road to adulthood faces the hurdles of coming to terms with his gayness and figuring out how to deal with his newly awakened superpowers. Thom needs an actor with a good amount of charisma but who can underplay it with Thom's introspective and insecure side. I think I saw a bit of that potential in Twilight hottie Kellan Lutz in his guest-spots on 90210. However, I think we saw a lot of Thom's qualities — great talent mixed with a little bit of doubt — in Mitch Hewers' Skins performance.

Goran:
JD Pardo or Argiris Karras

Thom's mysterious crush requires someone who can bring the kind of brooding and sense of mystery that David Boreanaz brought to the early days of Buffy. While JD Pardo's most famous role was playing Gwen Arajuo in a Lifetime movie, I really liked him on the short-lived Drive and he certainly showed an ability to play a character with a dark side as Hidden Palms' dead teen Eddie Nolan. I also was impressed with the way Argiris Karras played up Degrassi's closeted gay jock, Riley: take out Riley's jerky side and you're getting pretty close to Goran.

This is, um, super:

Perry Moore's young adult novel Hero - which tells the coming-out story of a gay teen superhero - is being developed as a one-hour series for Showtime by comics legend Stan Lee.

We knew that Lee and Moore were working together on something from their appearance together at a gay comics event earlier this year, but this is great news. Showtime of course brought us the groundbreaking Queer as Folk and The L Word, and while something based on a young adult novel might not be as racy as either of these series, it will no doubt continue the trend of out-loud, out-proud television.

We can't wait to hear more! In the meantime, check out our interview with Moore and our interview with Lee.

Right now, the biggest gathering of comic book readers and science fiction fans is happening in San Diego at Comic-Con International where geeks of many stripes binge on their hobbies and various entertainment companies try their damnedest to build the kind of buzz that makes or breaks projects.

At a Prism Comics panel yesterday focusing on "LGBT Portrayals in Comics" comics legend Stan Lee and Perry Moore announced a business partnership. The announcement was made before a standing-room-only audience who "exploded in applause as Lee entered the room, made his way to the dais and embraced Perry Moore."

I haven't been able to find details on the business partnership, but I'm looking forward to seeing what Moore develops with the comics legend. It's great to hear how accepting Lee is, though it's not entirely surprising. After all, back when he was taking superheros in a new direction at Marvel, he was breaking racial barriers in comics, seeing him continue to work for more inclusiveness feels like an apt continuation of his legend.

Meanwhile, at the Torchwood panel yesterday, it sounds like oft-bawdy John Barrowman hilariously tried to keep thing a little more all-ages, with Barrowman, Naoko Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd finding creative ways to talk around the pranks and silliness that happen on the set.

One interesting tidbit that came up at the panel was that Barrowman was considered as a possible Captain America for an upcoming movie. I have to admit, I can mentally cast Barrowman as Wonder Man or Hawkeye more easily, but those characters aren't in any upcoming movies (much to my — and many an Avengers fan's — disappointment). What do you think?

Bryan Singer and Neil Patrick Harris tidbits, after the jump!

In a continued effort to bring you all that is important in the world of gay entertainment and ensure that you are being spoon-fed images of gorgeous, commoditized manflesh, we present the newly-minted AfterElton Briefs. Following the usual assortment of carefully-selected news items, interested readers can find a refreshing pic of a hot man in underwear after the jump. Yes, we're serious.

• In gay movie news, Breakfast With Scot has been picked up for North American distribution by Regent Releasing (sister company of here! Films), who plan to release sometime this fall. if you want to weigh the upside/downside, check out the discussion over at our article on gay film distribution.

• Shelter: The New York Times has a sweet piece on the NYC LGBT Community Center, which turns 25 this year. The building itself dates to before the Civil War.

• Alright, THIS is why God created the Interwebs: Daily Drag Queen Affirmations.

• Okay, a few months back I posted a publicity pic of Dancing With the Stars hunk Christian De La Fuente at a birthday celebration for Milk-Bone dog biscuits. Above, he's pictured at a birthday party for a cow named Maggie Moo in conjunction with the Boys & Girls Club. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear his publicist and I share a brain.

• And in sorta-gay film news. Lake City, which stars Sissy Spacek and Soldier's Girl's Troy Garity, will receive a November 7th release, courtesy of Screen Media. While the film itself isn't gay, it is the debut feature of gay filmmakers (and partners) Perry Moore (best known to us as the writer of gay superhero novel Hero) and Hunter Hill.

• Well, this is kind of a bummer ... we wrote recently that Michael Ausiello had blind itemed about a big gay twist coming for a sorta-hit show. Well, he spilled his beans, and the good news is, it's a kinda fun twist with two great actors involved. The bad news (for us, although not for our sister site!) is that it's two lady-type actors.

And today's Briefs are brought to you by...

Hero author Perry Moore (Photo: Joyce Dopkeen for the NYTimes)

The 20th Annual Lambda Literary Award winners were announced on Friday, highlighting the best in LGBT writing for 2007.

Among the winners were AfterElton.com fave Hero by Perry Moore (LGBT Childrens/Young Adult), Call Me By Your Name by Andre Acimen (which we reviewed here) for Men's Fiction, and AfterElton.com's own Flying Monkey, Brent Hartinger, for his double-novel, Split Screen (Bisexual). Woo-hoo!

Big congrats to all the winners, which you can find over here.

With the gay geeks finally getting representation on Beauty and the Geek thanks to Gregg, I've been thinking about openly gay men in pop culture as well as the visibility of gay themes in the realms of science fiction, comics and video games. Overall, these are realms where gay fans frequently feel left out, but things are getting better. Here are six openly gay men working in those areas who have also helped improve visibility for those of us who'd like to have a superhero, space captain, or time-traveling immortal of our own.

Russell T. Davies

Davies became a well-known name when he created the original Queer As Folk, a series that was groundbreaking at the time for prominently featuring gay characters including Doctor Who fanboy Vince Tyler. Davies was a longtime Doctor Who fan himself and was eventually tasked with reviving the franchise. Davies' Who run brought queer characters to the franchise. While most gay characters were a part of the world's background, Davies' first season of Who gave us Captain Jack Harkness, a charming and roguish, time-traveling con artist. Captain Jack was a popular character who got his own spin-off series (we've discussed it occasionally) giving us the first bisexual male heroic lead on a mainstream sci-fi program.

One of the interesting tendencies of Davies is to reuse names, something that Davies says helps him flesh out a character. His Queer as Folk everyman Vince shared a name with the first companion in Davies' Doctor Who run, Rose. (And the Tyler name continued in a show that Davies didn't work on when the creators of Life on Mars named their time-traveling protagonist, Sam Tyler, after Rose.) He's introduced two smart and capable women named Jones (Prime Minister Harriet Jones and medical student Martha Jones) as well as Torchwood's super capable office assistant Ianto Jones. However, the character that has the geekiest lineage is Captain Jack who is named after Agatha Harkness, a popular character among gay Marvel readers. Naming your influential character after the tutor of a d-list comic book diva, that's geek cred.

Phil Jimenez

Jimenez's artwork first hit the comic shops in 1991, his amazingly detailed and realistic style quickly made an impression. Over time, his consistently strong work has built him a following that has made him one of comics' marquee names who publishers court for an exclusive contract (he's currently exclusive to Marvel and is working on the flagship Amazing Spider-Man, with his first issue hitting the shelves earlier this month).

Jimenez became a role model for gay comic fans in 1996 with an editorial that appeared the last issue of the Tempest mini-series that he wrote and pencilled. In the editorial, Jimenez publicly came out and touchingly remembered Neal Pozner the man who first hired him to work for DC Comics who became a mentor to Jimenez, as well as Jimenez' partner. Pozner died in 1994 and the eulogy was powerful not only for increasing gay visibility among comic creators but for bringing a gay relationship into the dialogue.

Clive Barker

Barker quickly made an impression as a horror writer, particularly after Stephen King praised him as "the future of horror". Barker has had a long and varied career that has included film (which includes the horror series Hellraiser as well as producing the film Gods and Monsters), comic books (Barker has an original series comic soon from IDW, who've previously published adaptations of his The Thief of Always and The Great and Secret Show) and video games.

• Gotta kiss them all... and kiss them multiple times, by my count:
  When it debuted in 2006, the ability to kiss boys in Bully was an optional feature that had to be discovered by players exploring every possibility in the game. However, now that the game is coming out for the X-Box, getting a kiss from one of the boys of Bullsworth Academy is a step towards earning X-Box gamerscore points (which offers bragging rights to other X-Box Live users). How's that for progress, games rewarding you for same-sex snogging. (There's also an achievement for kissing female classmates, that offers the same amount of points.)
  
  
• Small screen Paradise:
  Over at our sister site, thelinster shares the exciting news that a Strangers in Paradise TV series is in the works, with some fantasy casting for Francine and Katchoo. (My vote for Katchoo would be Katee Sackhoff, since the first time I saw her on Battlestar Galactica, I thought of the lesbian hitwoman/artist.) That got me thinking about casting the series' hot guys. I'm at a loss at actors the right ethnicity and age to play David Qin, except maybe Ivan Shaw, recently seen on The Book of Daniel. What do you think?

  

  I really like the thought of the GLAAD Media Award winner hitting the small screen and it'll be interesting how the series' gay themes would change in the adaptation -- I thought SiP creator Terry Moore showed a growing understanding of queer issues as the series went on and I'd love to see how he'd tell the story from the beginning now that his understanding of gay issues are more complex.
  
  
• A Rock Band party out of bounds:
  I'm incredibly bad at Guitar Hero so my interest in the multiplayer Rock Band hasn't been very high. However, hearing that the next set downloadable songs includes The B-52s raises my interest. Any chance a DDR player would find the drums easier than a string instrument?
  
  
• We're getting close to the point where the phrase "Everybody loves Tim Gunn" isn't hyperbole:
  This seems to be the week for my nerd crushes to reveal an appreciation for Tim Gunn. A few days after Tim appeared on The Daily Show, we got to see Grant Imahara do an imitation of Tim on Mythbusters' second James Bond special. Unfortunately, I haven't found a clip of it online, so I'll just have to share a screencap:

  

• Tales of what should be an age left behind:
  One of the biggest challenges of sharing a love of comics with someone who doesn't already enjoy that hobby comes when you encounter the comic shops that live up to those Android's Dungeon stereotypes. (I've certainly made my share of apologies for saying "Hey, can we make a quick stop to check out that comic shop?" to friends.) Sadly, this story of visiting Comics Ink in Culver City brings back those bad memories:

  "Amazing Spider-Man" #548... was not bad, despite what the retail troll behind the counter was telling customers about it. "You got cancer by touching it," he told one man buying a copy. "You've read it, but now you've got eye cancer. It's like visual AIDS."

  Sigh. "Visual AIDS." Who thought I could be nostalgic for "Worst. Comic. Ever."
  
  
• YALSA finds a Hero for young adult readers:
  We've mentioned a few times how YALSA, the Young Adult Library Services Association, has been inclusive of gay-themed books, something that can really be a help when you're young and struggling to accept yourself. Here's another example that's been brought to my attention, among their 2008 list of Best Books for Young Adults, is Perry Moore's gay superhero tale Hero.
  
  
• Link of the week:
  I heard that popular webcomic Shortpacked had a gay character, but when I checked it out it was in the middle of a storyline that left me a bit confused if the character really was gay or if it were just a way to turn down his co-worker, Robin. However, Pink Kryptonite alerted me to the current storyline, which has Robin scheming to set Ethan up with a regular customer, Thad:

  

  I was up late last night getting caught up on Shortpacked and, Ethan is a fun character to follow. I'm hoping he and Thad get together, they'd be a fun 'opposites attract' couple.
  
  

• I'm calling it a dress-me-up Logan:
  I've been a fan of out artist J Bone from the moment I first saw a Doom Patrol sketch he did during his Amateur Press Alliance* days (wow, that was almost a decade ago) and I'm loving the Wolverine paper doll he posted on his blog. He's promising more to come, including templates ready to be customized in your friendly neighborhood image editor.
  
  * Amateur Press Alliances, they were like blogs, except that you had to print out and mail a copy to each of your readers.
  
• Moore chat, more fun:
  Pride High creator Tommy Roddy had a chat with Hero author Perry Moore for Prism Comics. Roddy and Moore discuss Freedom Ring, the "Who cares about the death of a gay superhero?" list, the goals of Hero, the reaction of Moore's family along with the differences in how comics publishers and young adult lit publishers look at gay characters. I didn't realize Moore had a role in getting Hulkling and Wiccan written as a gay couple... or that that Moore was tuckerized into an issue of Young Avengers.
  
• From 'the news from unexpected sources' dept:
  I never would have expected to get this news from a toy manufacturer (who, apparently, also makes toys inspired by The Catherine Tate Show, how unusual), but it sounds like we stateside Doctor Who fans can expect to see the fourth season hit the Sci-Fi channel in April. It's a shorter wait time than previous seasons. I'm pretty excited about the upcoming season (and the Christmas special with Kylie Minogue) so the sooner the better.
  
  I'm most thrilled that I might be able to follow the discussion about the series -- I've spent that last couple seasons thinking things like, "Love and Monsters, I remember hearing about this episode... was that because people liked it or hated it?"
  
• Hm, I wonder how "Make it work!" would sound in simlish:
  EA continues the hype for the latest Sims 2 expansion, Free Time this time unveiling some details about arts and crafts in the expansion. Normally, this wouldn't be be a big deal but doesn't the sharp-dressed man in one of the screen shots look a bit familiar?

  

  It certainly helps that he's cheering her on as she sews. You know what would make Free Time rock? If there actually were a Tim Gunn NPC in the expansion and got him to record some simlish. I can just imagine "Boobasnotz" in his voice. If there's any game where a Tim Gunn cameo would be apt, it'd be The Sims.
  
• A withering Iris?:
  After attending YAOI-Con, I was disappointed that Iris Press wasn't there with their promised anthology magazine, BL Twist. Iris has started discussing its financial troubles. BL Twist may be canceled, but Iris is asking fans to help it get some of its unpublished titles on the market. I thought the Bay Area-based publisher had an interesting perspective that encompassed both straight female and gay male readers, so I'm interested in seeing how this one develops.
  
• More Cylons, more fun... uhm, more complicated discussions of nature vs. nurture:
  Oooh, Entertainment Weekly has a teaser image for the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica that inspired plenty of speculation about what we'll see. (So expect to find a few spoilers at the link.) I'm most excited about the thought of (spoiler redacted) taking on another character since I'm such a sucker for the philosophical discussions that the varying Cylon personalities can start (it's all very The Cloning of Joanna May). Meanwhile, the rumor mill says that the current Writers' Strike has improved the chances that we'll see proposed BSG prequel series, "Caprica".