By With recent celebrated releases like Call Me By Your Name and Moonlight, it's easy to forget quite how groundbreaking the gay love story Brokeback Mountain was back in 2005.
The film, which won three Oscars, stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as a cowboy and ranch hand respectively who fall in love and share a tentative night of passion that defines the next 20 year of their lives.
But it may have looked very different according to a new interview with the producer and screenwriter, Diana Ossana.
Speaking at a Q&A in between back-to-back showings of Philadelphia and Brokeback Mountain, Ossana spoke about the difficulties in getting prominent actors to commit to a "gay cowboy" film, describing how numerous "prominent young actors" would quit the project and how "nobody would commit".
Speaking to the audience at Santa Monica's Aero Theatre, she revealed that Matt Damon, Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg were all considered for the two leading roles, as well as Gus Van Sant as director.
"We sent it to Edward Norton [to direct] and Joel Schumacher and dozens of people and they all came back saying they loved it but no one would commit. They didn't give us any real excuse why they wouldn't. I guess they saw it as too difficult."
"This is a movie about two men who fall in love. It's very specific," she explained. "It's about Ennis and Jack and it's about their flaws and their mistakes and their struggles and their humanity."
It took Heath Ledger's then girlfriend Naomi Watts to get him to commit to the project, who insisted he was perfect for the role. Later on set, Ledger told Ossana that, "it's the most beautiful script I've ever read in my life."
