As “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” continues to dominate the box office, one three-screen arthouse movie theater in Milwaukee will also show films starring several of Taylor Swift’s past boyfriends.
Cara Ogburn, artistic director of Oriental Theater overseer Milwaukee Film, brainstormed the idea in response to the requirement that theaters can only show “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” Thursdays through Sundays.
“What if we show all Jake Gyllenhaal movies,” Ogburn, who was interviewed by The New York Times, recalled suggesting initially as a joke. “True counterprogramming.”
Thus next week, the theater will screen “Twilight” starring Taylor Lautner as werewolf Jacob Black, “Dunkirk” featuring Harry Styles formerly of the boyband “One Direction” and now doing just fine on his own as a solo musician and actor, “Crimson Peak” starring Tom Hiddleston before he took on the mantle of the MCU’s Lokie and several Jake Gyllenhaal features — “Zodiac,” “Enemy,” “Nocturnal Animals” and “Donnie Darko” on Halloween.
Notably absent from the lineup was Swift’s most recent ex, actor Joe Alwyn, who has appeared in films like Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favorite” (2017), “Harriet” (2019), Lena Dunham’s “Catherine Called Birdy” (2022) and more.
From the Halloween umbrella, the movie options were filtered for quality.
“Then we whittled it down to — what is a good movie?” Ogburn said.
Then came securing the rights to show the films.
“We were surprised to discover how many boyfriends she has had who have been in movies,” Ogburn said.
The songstress dated Lautner — whom she recently reconnected with for the “I Can See You (Taylor’s Version) music video — in 2009, Gyllenhaal — who is believed to have inspired the many versions of Swift’s popular “Red” album ballad “All Too Well — in 2010, Styles in 2012 and Hiddleston in 2016.
The Times cited the resident Swiftie on Ogburn’s team as not objecting to the idea. Swifties, who are already an intense fandom on their own, can get particularly riled up when it comes to Swift’s exes, especially those who have seemingly done her wrong in the past.