The Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality in the landmark case Obergefell V. Hodges on June 26, after which approximately 63 percent of Americans put rainbow overlays on their Facebook profile photos. But even with the legal decision and Facebook backing marriage equality, it won’t really be recognized until there’s an Oscar-winning movie about it.
And it’s apparently not too early to start fantasy-casting that movie, which was predicted by our sister site two years ago. The Onion’s prescient headline, “Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito Suddenly Realize They Will Be Villains In Oscar-Winning Movie One Day,” may come to fruition sooner rather than later, with Deadline reporting that Fox 2000 has acquired the life rights to Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff, and his lawyer, Al Gerhardstein. Fox 2000 has also purchased rights to the book proposal called 21 Years To Midnight by Obergefell and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Debbie Cenziper.
Obergefell married his husband, John Arthur, in Maryland three months before Arthur died. Their marriage was not recognized in their home state of Ohio, and when the state refused to list Obergefell on Arthur’s death certificate, Obergefell sued. In his dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia called the decision a “threat to American democracy,” words that will one day win an Oscar for Danny DeVito, Joseph R. Gannascoli, or Shrek, the large green troll from a popular series of films.