Desert Hearts sequel(s)

Director Donna Deitch talked about potential sequels to Desert Hearts in an interview with Andrea Meyerson posted yesterday on AfterEllen. Yes, you read that right -- sequels, plural. She says she wants to make a series of films "about the world of Desert Hearts -- and that may sound a bit vague, and that's a little bit intentional."

The first of these will feature Cay and Vivian, the main characters from the original, but they'll be supporting characters this time around. The film will be set "in the heart of the second wave of the women's movement in New York," which, according to Deitch, was "a time when more women in history came out than any other time." It'll have an ensemble cast and tell the stories of "numerous women":

Desert Hearts will begin to collect more characters, and so then in the next sequel, there'll be new characters and the older characters from the one before. . . . I'm thinking about making a few of them and in the end of it, I'm contemplating doing a sci-fi Desert Hearts.

There's a combination of phrases I never thought I'd hear, but I have to tell you, I'm intrigued. I adore sci-fi. There aren't any gay sci-fi films -- none that I can think of, anyway. It's definitely a concept worth exploring.

Deitch says she doesn't have "a precise timeline" for production or release, but then Meyerson didn't ask for even a vague estimate. It sounds like the first of the sequels is in the writing stage and the rest is pure speculation.