NoirFan

From Variety: Somehow I can't picture Michael Douglas in sequins, though apparently this project is a long ways off.

PopcornTreeCt

I guess this will take place when Liberace was a very old man?

FinkPish

Must...resist...Liberache....joke....

JumpCutz

This kind of came out of nowhere...


Michael Douglas is taking a sharp turn from his usual roles to tackle the lead in a film biography of the campy musical performer Liberace, and Matt Damon is playing his longtime lover, director Steven Soderbergh confirmed.

"We've already done some costume and wardrobe tests on Michael, and they're very, very, very good." Soderbergh told a French newspaper at the Deauville Film Festival. "I swear to you, Michael amazed me. He crushed it."

Born Wladziu Valentino, the flamboyant, piano-playing Liberace, nicknamed "Mr. Showmanship" and "Glitter Man," was a staple of early 1950s television, and was an institution in Las Vegas until his death from AIDS in 1987. At his height, he made more money than Elvis and The Beatles.

Damon, Soderbergh said, has agreed to portray Scott Thorsen, the assistant/boyfriend whose 1982 palimony suit for $110 million publically outed the entertainer.

"Matt accepted the challenge," Soderbergh said. "But I have to say I'd already convinced him to gain 30 pounds for The Informant."

Liberace will be filmed off a script by writer/director Richard Lagravense, who was responsible for The Bridges of Madison County. Soderbergh said the budget will allow filmmakers to re-stage segments of Liberace's spectacular stage act, which often involved elaborate stunts such as flying or driving to his piano bench in a Rolls-Royce.


http://www.people.com/people/article...303839,00.html

NoirFan

Not really.

JumpCutz

Oopsie. Doesn't look like this project generated any interest in these parts.

dan30oly

And why would it?

It sounds like an absolutely horrid idea and something few people would have interest in seeing.

Ash Ketchum

What, Scorsese and Di Caprio couldn't get there first?

Or, better yet, Mira Nair and Hilary Swank. Hey, she's got the teeth for it!

Supermallet

Is this going to be before or after the Cleopatra 3D musical?

JumpCutz

I don't know, I think it could be interesting. Liberace had a pretty unique life. Add to the fact Steven Soderbergh would be directing.

It sounds more compelling than Moneyball.

NoirFan

Yes, you're quire right, as always. Steven Soderbergh is a critically maligned hack, and Matt Damon and Michael Douglas are obscure, unpopular actors. The handful of oddball, possibly deranged viewers who would have even remote interest in such a collaboration will probably just wait for the Blue-rae anyway. I'm pleased to see that Ash Ketchum is nothing if not consistent as well. I suppose he's just biding his time waiting for the next Pokemon masterpiece, featuring the voice of Megan Fox as Haruka!

dan30oly

I sense sarcasm here, but after watching the stinking turd that was called The Informant! I do believe that Soderbergh is a hack. The only two good movies he's directed have been Oceans 11, and Out of Sight.

Michael Douglas hasn't been relevant or in anything worth seeing since 1993.

If Matt Damon keeps making crap like The Informant! and now Liberace I believe he's determined to tank his own career.

AnonomusBob15

hey now, Douglas had a good year in 2000. Starring in TWO good movies, Wonder Boys, and Traffic.

He was also in The Game (1997), but it's goodness is a little more debatable.

Ash Ketchum

All right! Now y'er talkin'. Better yet, make it live-action with her in the role, plus Ellen Page as Misty and Jason Statham as Ash. And directed by the guys who did the Crank films. Let's greenlight this, like, yesterday!

P.S. And Hannah Montana as Pikachu!

JumpCutz

Sex, Lies and Videotape
The Limey
Erin Brockovich
Traffic


All the aforementioned films are considered good films.
All have a rating of 84% or better on Rotten Tomatoes.
All of them directed by Steven Soderbergh.

inri222

Che
The Good German
Bubble
Kafka

Ash Ketchum

I have yet to see a good movie directed by Soderbergh. OUT OF SIGHT could have been good, but was derailed by J-Lo's casting. TRAFFIC was unbearably heavy-handed and a torture to sit through. ERIN BROCKOVICH was an adequate star vehicle for Julia Roberts--if all you're going to the movies for is star vehicles for Julia Roberts, which I'm not. The others I've seen I don't feel strongly enough about either way to comment on.

Oh, and who cares what a Rotten Tomato thinks?

Groucho

I choose you, Whitacre-san!

Giles

that actually sounds 'worse' than a Liberace bio-pic.

NoirFan

No way, the music is going to be by Guided by Voices!

Giles

^ oooooooh - now there's a definate plus.... you'd think a Cleopatra musical might have a Polyphonic Spree sound to it though.

JumpCutz

So it looks like this is finally going to happen...



On the heels of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and a battle with cancer, Michael Douglas has signed on to portray the flamboyant pianist Liberace in a biopic to be directed by Steven Soderbergh (The Informant!, Che).

Matt Damon is set to play Liberace's lover Scott Thorson. The screenplay is based on Thorson's book Behind the Candelabra (My Life With Liberace). Damon is in production on the sci-fi thriller Contagion with Soderbergh currently, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Douglas is planning to take music training to prepare for the role and may wear prosthetic makeup to appear more like the entertainer.

Production is scheduled to start in early summer 2011

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...e-2150599.html

Numanoid

I don't mean to be crass, but I assume Douglas is only going to play Liberace in the final throes of full-blown AIDS. Here's a recent pic of Douglas:



I hope he regains his health, but he currently looks older than Liberace did when he died (at age 67).

DRG

I'm all for him wanting to continue to work while he battles cancer, but between the prosthetics and the singing this particular project sounds like he's taking on way too much given his health.

JumpCutz

First pics of Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as Scott Thorson.

*snip*