Gus Van Sant's Harvey Milk biopic film Milk is reported to include gay sex scenes on par with mainstream Hollywood movies.

Director Van Sant's Milk is a political movie about the life and times of the first openly gay man to serve public office: Harvey Milk. The gay activist turn politician who dubbed himself the “Mayor of Castro Street,” won a long-fought election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977.

Milk's contributions to gay politics have long been overshadowed by his untimely death at the hands of colleague Dan White.

But unlike gay themed Hollywood blockbusters that have preceded Milk, such as Philadelphia and Brokeback Mountain, the gay drama is reported to include graphic sex scenes on par with Hollywood movies.

“It's the first studio film where the sex scenes with gay men are in the same places and exactly the same amount as they would be with straight characters,” Milk Producer Dan Jinks told gay monthly magazine Out.

Jinks said Van Sant was completely comfortable talking about the gay sex scenes, which occur between Harvey Milk, portrayed by Sean Penn, and his lover Scott Smith, as played by James Franco. “If people walk out of our movie talking about sex scenes, we would have failed in our goals for the movie,” Jinks said.

“By the same token, if people walk out talking about the lack of sex scenes, á la Philadelphia, we would also fail,” Bruce Cohen, another producer added.

The first kiss between Penn and Franco occurs on Castro Street. It's a three-minute, deep and hungry kiss that was filmed in front of hundreds of people.

“[T]here were like 200 people watching on Castro Street,” James Franco told Out. “I was a little nervous. And it was a long kiss. [Openly gay writer] Armistead Maupin came down to watch! So that was weird. It'd be weird kissing a girl in front of all those people.”

“After the first kiss, it broke the ice. And then after our kiss Sean texted Madonna – his ex-wife, Madonna – and said, 'I just broke my cherry kissing a guy. I thought of you. I don't know why.' And then she wrote back and said, 'Congratulations',” Franco said.

Milk opens nationwide November 26th and is already enjoying an early Oscar buzz.