It’s a race to the Milk and cookies between directors Bryan Singer and Gus Van Sant. Both are interested in doing a biopic on the life and times of Harvey Milk, the San Francisco supervisor and first openly gay elected official who was assassinated, along with Mayer George Moscone. The Mayor of Castro Street has spent 15 years in developmental purgatory and is slowly moving toward development, which brought in Singer two years ago. Meanwhile, Van Sant has attached himself to an untitled Milk script by Dustin Lance Black, says Variety.

The whole thing smells like another Capote/Infamous debacle, where no one noticed Infamous. Adding to the developmental race, Van Sant was once set to direct The Mayor of Castro Street and even wrote a script for the film years ago. Singer is hoping to be the first out of the gate after Valkyrie in 2008 and the Superman Returns sequel in 2009.

"We're seeing the light at the end of a long tunnel," said Craig Zadan, The Mayor of Castro Street producer. "Warner Independent is pushing us to get the film made right away. Some of it might have to do with the enormous success of Brokeback Mountain, and some of it is passion for the right tone and the story we are telling. Chris [McQuarrie, writer] has nailed the take, and the goal is to have the script ready so that we can make the movie as soon as Bryan finishes his [United Artist] film. We've had tremendous response from actors."

You can be sure that Van Sant will rush his project into production in order to beat The Mayer of Castro Street in a photo finish. Unfortunately, the real loser here is the 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, which is highly-recommended if you would like more accurate info than a Hollywood version can provide.