10 Upcoming Movies That Have Already Pissed Everyone Off

Rub & Tug was set to be a biopic about Dante 'Tex' Gill, a transgender gangster and pimp who managed numerous illegal massage parlors in the Pittsburgh area. Avenger's alumni Scarlett Johansson had accepted the role to play Gill. A movie about Gill would certainly be interesting, especially considering the man's life contains an event wherein he hit a cop in the face with a birthday cake during a raid of one of his brothels.

Nonetheless, backlash was fairly swift for Johansson, a cisgender woman, playing the role of Gill - a transgender man. Fresh off the back of her whitewashing controversy from Ghost in the Shell many considered Johansson's response, via her representative, to the backlash rather tone deaf as well. "Tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman's reps for comment." Because after all when someone's whole point is that you're helping to take jobs away from actual trans people, especially starring roles, then your first response should probably not be, "I'm not the first to do it!" Especially by listing other actors who all also received backlash for their depictions of transgender characters.

Regardless of her true feelings, Johansson opted to leave the project shortly thereafter and no further news has come from the production on a new star or whether or not the movie will ever see a release. My personal hope is that the film does eventually get made - and I'd put Ian Harvie up for the role of Tex, myself.