Ian McKellen to star in 14 year old boy’s LGBTQ+ feature film

Ian McKellen is set to star in an upcoming film about LGBTQ+ history – directed by none other than 14 year old first time director Jacob Franklin.

The film, entitled Dragged Through Time, will premiere at Windsor & Eton Pride this summer. The brainchild of Franklin, the film has been produced by Windsor-based youth drama company Notice Productions.

The sprawling film will cover important events and groups in LGBTQ+ history such as Section 28, the Gay Liberation Front and the queer survivors of the Holocaust.

“I wanted to make this film because there aren’t a lot of [LGBTQ+] history films for young people,” Franklin explained in a recent interview with the Maidenhead Advertiser.

“History teaches us that things can sadly go backwards as well as forwards for [LGBTQ+] people,” Franklin continued. “But it also teaches us there have been many positives, whether Ancient Greece or the Gay Liberation Front.”

The young director also spoke about the experience of working with the acclaimed actor. “It was inspiring to have Ian McKellen involved,” he began, “not only because he is a great professional actor, but more because he fought for gay rights.”

“I often look back to myself at his age and regret,” McKellen said in a video posted on Facebook with the young filmmaker. “I wasn’t close enough to my parents to talk to them about what I knew of myself, that I was gay.

“The idea that at 14, I could have plucked up the courage to have a conversation with them about something so personal,” McKellen continued. “So I never told either of my parents that their only son was gay. So to see him and this situation makes me think, ‘Oh perhaps I could have done this if I’d been a bit braver or the world had been a bit different.'”

Dragged Through Time is set to premiere on Saturday, 26 July at Windsor & Eton Pride. Tickets to the event can be purchased here.