Soderbergh talks Liberace Biopic
Posted by Rodneyon 17. 12. 2008in News Chat
We caught wind of some news about the Liberace biopic coming out from Steven Soderbergh, and assurances that the movie will show off the talents of Liberace, not just his lifestyle.
“Liberace” is tentatively scheduled to begin shooting in 2010 with Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, and will focus on the flamboyant pianist’s turbulent relationship with his companion Scott Thorson in the final decade of his life.Thorson, who would be played by Damon, filed a $113 million palimony suit against the entertainer in 1982, but ended up settling out of court for a far lesser sum of money. The story promises a great deal of drama, and some insight into the secretive personal life of one of popular culture’s legendary closeted superstars, but the filmmaker also promises not to ignore his subject’s virtuosity and showmanship.
“There are performance scenes,” Soderbergh told MTV News. “It’s important that you either understand why he was as famous as he was, or to wonder why he was as famous as he was. You need to see what he did.”
I think this is a very important part of a Biopic. The players involved need to be fleshed out so that you care about their story, however I was never a fan of Liberace, so I likely won’t be a fan of a biopic on his life. Aside from his flamboyant flair, I couldn’t name one song he was famous for.
However I think the darker fate for this movie will be the homophobes who will attempt to bash this movie for the portrayal of a gay relationship instead of just passing it by for not being their preference. Some people are still uncomfortable seeing a gay couple on screen (fortunately this is slowly becoming a non-issue) but instead of just choosing not to see it they will make the effort to attack it instead.
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It’s so funny you should end this with, “but instead of just choosing not to see it they will make the effort to attack it instead.” So goes the life of a gay person.
Anyway, I think this is the very problem with Hollywood’s versions of gay peoples. The stories always involve some closeted guy. And now,to top it off, Hollywood picks one of the most flamboyant gay personas in modern history to do another sad gay man dying story. Pfft. I mean Liberace was as flaming as the lit candles adorning his jewel encrusted piano. He;s not me or any of my friends!
Here is an idea: A real rough and tumble man saves the world and gets the guy at the end. NO immune deficiancy, no coming out, and none of the overtly gay overtones that seem to hinder most flicks with gay people in them. I want a movie with a gay man that straight guys would pick for a game of football. A gay man that straight guys would want on their side during a war. And not a gay man lusting after them either. Jeez, is that really too much to ask? I wouldn’t think so. They can make a CGI character win an Academy Award, but they can’t make a realistic gay hero. WTF!
@RonSalon, if they are going to do a Liberace story they have to do it about a closet homosexual. Thats what he was.
No one was the least bit surprised, but at the time he was doing his thing, it wasn’t well accepted to be openly gay. Same as the story in Milk.
So what is your idea of a gay hero? Yeah.. normal guy just like anyone else who also just happens to be gay. There is no story there. The story is how he struggles against stereotypes and hate to deal with his own identity.
Gay guy struggling with his identity? Watch American Beauty. Id put the neighbour’s dad on my football team anyday.
@Rodney
There is a great nonfiction novel, and then a documentary film, The Celluloid Closet. There is a wonderfully true line by one of the commentators:
“If your gay you have to pay real penance.”
Think about that for a second, visualizing films with a gay person in the lead.
Why can’t the struggle be about other things? A great gay monomyth needn’t deal with coming out. That is the problem with some straight people’s concepts of gay people. It’s always about the ‘gay sex’ we have like were just giant sex driven sodomites. Granted, concensual sex is one aspect, but hardly what makes any individual or relationship. All gay person’s internal struggles aren’t defined only by the people they feel the need to have sex with. While I agree that can be fascinating aspect, it is not the only trope available. Internal struggles can be as varied as the external. When they are relateable to the reader or viewer they can be powerful.
While I can see why you might want someone like the guy in American Beauty to be on your side. I would not. I would rather have someone that I could rely on. Being in the closet is an unstable, self loathing place to be. And becasue of that the person can be unreliable and unstable, making it a delusive benefit. Using their internal battle for external reward also has a moral issue within it that we don’t need to discuss. IMO it also can place the regiment in harm’s way.
So if a story is about gay struggle, you dont like it?
But if they took a totally normal story and just tossed in that the guy was gay… that would be ok?
Thats lipservice.
Furthermore, its not what happened to Liberace, so you cant complain that his real life story happens to be what you dont like about a homosexual on screen.
Gay acceptance doesnt mean we can’t have stories about gay struggles.
@ Rodney
You said, “But if they took a totally normal story and just tossed in that the guy was gay”
IMO, this is the problem. A totally ‘normal’ story… Being gay is normal at least to some of us.
And while I agree gay acceptance doesn’t mean not having gay accetance struggles.
I want, need, plead to have a story in which the audience wants, roots, and cheers for the Hero who just so happens to like other boys.
That is what I want. At least just once. And let it have a budget more than ten million. Imagine! I grew up watching gay men who hated themselves. There was no one like me who was a hero. Instead I had a secret crush on Buck Rogers in the eighties. Man, looking back at that show now I wonder what I was on. His hair is just awful. LOL
And just to prove my point… in the last few years.
American Beauty: closeted gay man gets prison
Brokeback Mtn: The one who professes their love is beaten
Philadelphia: the man who takes on the system dies ot The HIV
Milk: The man who takes of the goverment is shot
and the soon to be, Liberace: The great entertainer dies of The HIV.
Where is the hero who gets the guy and lives happily ever after? Pay the piper, you’re gay. You don’t get the happy ending… And so the story goes.
Again… for the record of Liberace and Milk… THOSE THINGS HAPPENED.
Also “Milk: The man who takes of the goverment is shot”… uh JFK rocked the boat too and ended up with the same result. So Milk is the perfect example of a story in which the guy just happens to be gay facing real normal struggles any non-gay would.
Okay, we can agree that we don’t see exactly eye to eye. But that is what makes me like this sight and debating with you. By the way, great sight, Rodney.
Okay, we can agree that we don’t see exactly eye to eye. But that is what makes me like this sight and debating with you. By the way, I like your own sight, Rodney.
Shh… my sight isnt public yet. lol
Sometimes the most fickle triviality can move to the most profound grace.
If you watch Rodney Dangerfield in “Back to School”, all his rather crude
vulgarity just dissolves into a noble grace while in scene 30 he recites Dylon Thomas. So I could care less about any and all stereotypes.