Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: New Regency will redevelop Rub & Tug into a TV series, with the pilot to be written by Emmy-nominated writer/producer, Our Lady J.
There is also a commitment to cast a trans actor to play the show’s lead role of Dante “Tex” Gill, the infamous transgender gangster who became an unlikely major figure in the criminal underworld of ’70s Pittsburgh.When Deadline first broke news that New Regency had won a script auction for Gill’s story with Scarlett Johansson attached to play Gill and Rupert Sanders directing, an outcry followed in the LGBTQ+ community, and the ensuing pressure prompted the exit of Johansson — who had previously been maligned for the Sanders-directed Japanese anime adaptation.