Fresh off a very busy weekend partying it up for Charli XCX’s birthday (though apparently not quite as busy as certain gossip bloggers made it seem), Lukas Gage has lined up a new leading film role—and it sounds like a wild one!
Deadline announced today that the out heartthrob will star opposite Josh Duhamel in “darkly comedic crime thriller” Full Throttle Mindset from director Patrick Brice (Creep) based on the strange-but-true story of real-life businessman and con-man Todd Beckman.
Sure, they had us at “Lukas Gage,” but there are a few reasons the entire sentence above should have you even more excited. Let’s get into it, shall we?
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EXCLUSIVE: Josh Duhamel and Lukas Gage have signed on to star in ‘Full Throttle Mindset,’ a darkly comedic crime thriller from director Patrick Brice and XYZ Films https://t.co/wNX7hvyR3S
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) August 7, 2024
First of all, the story. Per Deadline, Gage will play “young burnout” Blake Laubinger who finds an unlikely mentor in Duhamel’s Todd Beckman, a “Midwestern tanning salon mogul.” But, as Blake gets closer to the business, he realizes it’s all a front for a drug empire—and now Todd’s made him his newest recruit.
The script from screenwriter Jake Disch is based on a piece in the St. Louis Riverfront Times from Doyle Murphy titled “The Long, Violent Fall of Tanning Mogul Todd Beckman.” The founder of tanning salon chain TanCo, Beckman was something of a local legend in the Midwest, a cult of personality an ever-expanding lifestyle empire that included gyms, massage parlors, health supplements shops, oh and a massive drug trafficking operations.
Of course, there was plenty of darkness lurking beneath that spray-tanned surface. Murphy’s reporting details the bloody and brutal series of events that led to Beckman’s shady dealings coming to light—and it’s well worth a read!
Related*
You won’t be able to look away.
But it should be noted, the piece only briefly mentions how Blake Laubinger was a “young drug dealer who started as an investor in one of Beckman’s gyms and became an awestruck protégé,” so one imagines Full Throttle Mindset will further flesh out the evolution of the pair’s complicated, “nearly paternalistic” partnership.
And, just from the sound of it, we can already tell Gage is going to nail the part. In his career thus far, the out actor has made a habit of playing morally questionable characters (You, Euphoria, Fargo), especially aimless young individuals with fraught relationships to older men (Down Low, The White Lotus).
Another reason to get excited for Full Throttle Mindset is its director, Patrick Brice. The filmmaker’s work tends to blend sharp, biting social satire with genre tropes—from the provocative couple comedy The Overnight to modern teen slasher There’s Someone Inside Your House—so this material is exactly in his wheelhouse.
Also, many of Brice’s films spotlight LGBTQ+ characters or address queer themes. In fact, he made his feature directorial debut with Creep, about a videographer who respond to a personal ad to help out a dying man at his remote home, where things quickly take a turn toward the unsettling. The surprising indie horror was a word-of-mouth hit, but was also wildly divisive—both lauded and lambasted for the way it played into the “gay panic” between these characters.
(Interestingly, Brice was also at one point attached to direct a film called Party & Prey, described as a Get Out-style horror story with a gay sugar daddy twist, but that seems to be on the back burner for now.)
In other words, there might not be a queer angle to the actual story Full Throttle Mindset is based on, but we wouldn’t be surprised if the film adaptation finds away to explore similar themes within the hom*osocial bonds of its hyper-masculine, highly volatile world.
Described as “gonzo cautionary tale about deluded American dreams and dark mentors,” Full Throttle Mindset is set to begin production later this year, so stay tuned for more updates and more casting announcements to come.
Related*
The 28-year-old revealed that he has a new love in his life via his social media.
And it’s just another project added to Gage’s always-busy slate, which includes this fall’s horror sequel Smile 2, mysterious sci-fi movie Companion co-starring Harvey Guillén and Yellowjackets‘ Sophie Thatcher, and another intriguing crime thriller Young Lust opposite Justice Smith.
This guy just knows how to stay booked and busy, and to that we say:
— alex?? dbd era?? (@yourarcherboy) August 7, 2024"lukas gage to star in-"
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