Spoiler Alert Trailer Promises Heartbreak for the Holidays
Focus Features/YouTube
Based on the memoir from Michael Aussielo, we know how this one ends.
Rachel Kiley
Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.
Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.
The first trailer for Spoiler Alert, a biographical drama based on a book from entertainment writer Michael Ausiello, is already tugging at heartstrings.
Based on Ausiello’s Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies, anyone who has even heard of this book or become vaguely familiar with the author’s life already knows how this one ends. What initially starts out as a cute romcom-looking film quickly marches towards tragedy in the trailer as the plot driving the film becomes more clear.
Spoiler Alert follows Michael, played here by Jim Parsons, as he looks back on his 13-year relationship with his partner, Kit Cowan (Ben Aldridge), after the latter is diagnosed with cancer.
As the memoir’s title suggests, Cowan lost his battle with the disease in real life after just 11 months. Shortly before he died, Ausiello applauded him as a “key driving force” behind his career, before ultimately committing their story to paper for publishing in 2017.
Parsons later optioned the story, and recently spoke to Queerty about what moved him to bring Ausiello’s heartbreaking personal tale to the screen.
“[Their] story echoed so many facets of my own life—not the tragic part of the journey, by the grace of God—but the long term relationship,” he said. “It was really, really easy for me to emotionally put myself in Michael’s shoes, even just reading the book… The thought of having to go through something like that with someone that has been a part of your life that long—that’s what made me so attached to the story, the journey he goes on.”
Spoiler Alert was adapted for the screen by David Marshall Grant and Dan Savage, directed by Michael Showalter, and also stars Sally Field and Bill Irwin. It heads to theaters in select cities December 2, with a wide release on December 16.
