The Magic Mike sequel will aim to please

If you saw Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike you know that it was, at its core, a serious-minded film, a little bit about half-naked expression and a lot about downbeat economic recession. After the titillating marketing campaign you’d be forgiven (if you were a gay man or straight woman, at least) for feeling a little cheated out of the much-promised equal opportunity prurience at the multiplex. The sequel, however, Magic Mike XXL, is shaping up to be a little different. Channing Tatum is writing the screenplay – this makes sense; he began his career that way – and he plans to tell the story of the wilder, more aggressively sexual aspects of the job, specifically a Soderbergh-sanctioned, semi-autobiographical account of the time Tatum was “…in a dark U-Haul with a bunch of these guys and we’re doing drugs driving up to the stripper convention.” Soderbergh won’t direct, but he’ll be working as director of photography and editor. It also appears that a lot of the original film’s hot cast members will return. So gather your single bills and be ready to make it rain when XXL hits theaters in 2015.

How to Train Your Dragon 3. Yes, already.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 is only now hitting theaters but the animated feature is already receiving the kind of reviews usually reserved for prestige-level Pixar releases. So here comes the green-lighting of the next sequel, How To Train Your Dragon 3. This was probably inevitable; director Dean Deblois (Lilo & Stitch) reportedly had always imagined the Dragon story to be a trilogy. And when your project manages to hit that sweet spot of nearly unanimous acclaim, goodwill and fan support while successfully franchising and creating merchandizing opportunities and TV spinoffs and managing to avoid the troublesome trap of media saturation and burnout (see: Frozen), there’s no reason not to keep digging in that garden. The plan right now is a 2016 release date with main voice actor Jay Baruchel already on board.  Other returning cast will no doubt follow. Big question, though, for the bearish Deblois: now that Part 2 has given us the first animated gay Viking, what will happen to him in Part 3? The world awaits an answer.

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Roland Emmerich forever

Hey, remember Independence Day? Sure you do. It was one of the biggest box-office successes of the 1990s. So what if nobody quotes it or loves it in the way they love something like Titanic or 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain? Money begets money, and that is why, 20 years later, it’s time for not one but two sequels, ID Forever Part 1 and ID Forever Part 2, from gay Hollywood power player Roland Emmerich. So far there’s no sign of a Will Smith buy-in but Bill Pullman is reported to be back on board. We can assume that there will also be a new batch of alien invaders to out-menace the kinder, gentler monsters of 1996. After that’s handled, Emmerich has announced a sequel to another of his ’90s titles, Stargate. More on both as they develop, but all we really want to know is will Stargate: The Next Space Whatever bring The Crying Game’s Jaye Davidson out of acting retirement? Fingers crossed.

Learn this name: Desiree Akhavan

You don’t know her yet, but you will soon enough. Iranian-American next wave talent Desiree Akhavan is a writer and filmmaker whose first feature, Appropriate Behavior, is making waves on the film festival circuit and drawing attention for its hilarious, fresh approach to the problem of identity and visibility for queer women of color. Akhavan stars in the film as Shirin, the perfect Persian daughter who’s also bisexual and who feels like she’s failing at all her various identities. Call it the LGBT Tiny Furniture if you must. Because while comparisons to Lena Dunham may seem very easy at this point, they’re also not completely out of the question, as Akhavan will also co-star on the upcoming season of Dunham’s Girls.  We don’t believe in pitting women against each other ’round these parts – unless it results in a spectacular, Dynasty-level, wig-pulling catfight in a fountain, then yes, by all means, go for it – we’re just excited for the alliance of two young voices making strong work for new queer female voices in filmmaking. So don’t forget, it’s spelled A-k-h-a-v-a-n.