Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears Producing Debut Film

Jake Shears is adding another title to his résumé. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Scissor Sisters frontman has joined the upcoming feature film Tinderbox as a producer.

Based on Robert Fieseler’s acclaimed 2018 book Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation, the project tells the story of the 1973 Up Stairs Lounge fire in New Orleans, which claimed 32 lives and remained the deadliest mass killing of LGBTQ people in U.S. history until the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting.

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In addition to producing, Shears will contribute music from his solo albums Jake Shears and B-Sides. The film is being written and directed by Ganymede filmmakers Colby Holt and Sam Probst, who said Shears’ music became intertwined with their vision for the adaptation as they revisited Fieseler’s book.

“The more we listened, the more we started to think that Jake’s songs and lyrics related to different characters and scenes in Robert’s book,” the pair said in a statement. “Jake and Robert are both New Orleanians, and we feel since these two works were created in this same city, during the same time period, they must have just been in the air together and somehow we picked up on the tune.”

Producer Cory Thompson of Rewind Artists called Tinderbox “exactly the kind of project we’re passionate about developing,” praising Fieseler’s source material and adding that Shears’ involvement “only strengthens an already incredible creative team.”

The announcement comes as Scissor Sisters continue their long-awaited reunion, which in 2025 constituted the group’s first live shows in 13 years. They’ll play festivals and headline shows in the U.K. and Europe through Aug. 30 in Glasgow.

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