The Latest Buzz On The "Liberace Movie"!
The Latest Buzz On The "Liberace Movie"!
Nothing new to report, unfortunately.
REEL WORLD • News From Hollywood
By Rebecca Ascher-WalshMUSIC MEN - Director Philip Kaufman (Quills) is going to camp: He's working with Robin Williams to develop his Liberace biopic. "Robin's dying to do it," says Kaufman. "Liberace was very kitschy, but America couldn't really recognize that the guy could be gay–they wanted him to marry. There's something wildly humorous about [that]." And then there are the outfits: "[He] was the father of every performer who started dressing up, whether it was Marilyn Manson, Elton John, or Elvis Presley."
Without that little something extra, gold lame can be just plain lame. Which is one reason producers are hoping that comedian and Academy Award-winning actor Robin Williams will sign on to play the late great Caped Crusader of Camp, Liberace, in a movie scheduled to start filming this year. Liberace will chronicle the rise of the piano prodigy's career up to his death at age 67 in 1987. "[Williams] has a talent to do so many different kinds of characters, I think he'll make out fine," says Pauline Lachance, a former head of the pianist's fan club who now keeps track of the candelabra, as the archivist for the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas. "I don't know if he has any musical talent, but I suppose they could have someone [else] do that." Besides, she believes, they share at least one physical similarity: the nose.
So will the Bicentennial Man don rhinestones and sequins to become a piano man? Apparently the notion hasn't yet struck a chord with Williams.
"He was offered it and might end up doing it," the actor's manager David Steinberg told Variety. "But he might also play in the NBA."
Williams will tickle ivories on 'Liberace' film
By Zorianna Kit - LOS ANGELES
Robin Williams has come aboard to develop and topline "Liberace," a biopic to be directed by Philip Kaufman for Cary Woods' Independent Pictures.
Written by "Scary Movie" co-scribes Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the project is described as being in the vein of "The People vs. Larry Flynt." The film centers on the rise of Liberace's career through his death in 1987.
Born Wladziu Valentino Liberace, the entertainer was a child prodigy who emerged as a concert soloist by age 11 and performed with symphony orchestras in his teens. As an adult during the 1950s, Liberace -- often flamboyantly dressed in rhinestones, gold lame, furs and sequins -- became a star with his records and television and film appearances. The performer made headlines in 1959, when he successfully sued London's Daily Mirror for implying that he was gay.
Independent Pictures optioned Friedberg and Seltzer's spec script a year > and a half ago with company executive Gina Mingacci overseeing the project (HR 1/6/99). Basic Entertainment, which manages the writers, will also produce. Woods' New York-based production, distribution and marketing company has a distribution deal with New Line Cinema, which is slated to distribute "Liberace."
Williams, repped by Artists Management Group, is still in serious talks to star in "One Hour Photo," an urban thriller for Fox Searchlight (HR 8/10). Williams most recently starred in "Bicentennial Man." He took home the best supporting actor Oscar in 1998 for his role in "Good Will Hunting" and has been nominated for the best actor Oscar three times: in 1992 for "The Fisher King," in 1990 for "Dead Poets Society" and in 1988 for "Good Morning, Vietnam."
Kaufman most recently helmed "Quills" for Fox Searchlight, and he directed "Henry & June," "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," "The Right Stuff" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
HOLLYWOOD INK
Meanwhile, inside word says the predictably unpredictable Johnny Depp is considering the possibility of playing Liberace, that flamboyant, hugely successful Vegas superstar who sued reporters for alleging that he was gay, yet quietly kept a string of young male "protégés" around.
DEPP'S CANDELABRA
Will Jonny Depp trade in Ed Wood's angora sweater for something
even more outrageous, like sequined hot pants, an ermine cape and
a flaming candelabra? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps - if plans
materialize for him to portray the high priest of ivory-tickling
kitsch, Liberace. Word is that Depp is mulling over a script -
being retooled by Ed Wood scribes Scott Alexander and Larry
Karaszewski - based on the life of the "confirmed bachelor."
Or how about a track suit and whistle? The star is also mentioned
as a contender for the long-awaited film version of Patricia Nell
Warren's The Front Runner. Barry Sandler, who's adapting
the heartbreaking novel with the author, says Depp has a "real
magnetic intensity and vulnerability" necessary for track coach
Harlan. Go, Jonny, go!
JONNY DEPP TO PLAY LIBERACE
by Romeo San Vincente
The actor who filled out Ed Wood's angora sweaters may star in a film based on the life of another man of dubious masculinity, Liberace. TIME magazine recently reported that the quirky Jonny Depp has read a script by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski based on the life of the Polish-American pianist. Depp is in many ways a logical choice for the role of the candelabra queen; he's chosen edgy and interesting character roles in the past (can you say Edward Scissorhands?). Also, he's previously worked with Alexander and Karaszewski on Ed Wood and, despite having recently fathered a child, he remains a confirmed bachelor.
THE PIANO MAN
Reported by Jeffrey Ressner
Will history ever run out of real-life weirdoes for Johnny Depp to play? He has already taken on angoraphile filmmaker Ed Wood and gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Now it seems he may consider portraying the original cape man himself, Liberace. Depp's agent confirms only that the actor has read a script based on the flamboyant pianist's life, but a revised version is currently being overseen by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, with whom Depp worked on Ed Wood. The screenwriters, no strangers to eccentricity, have also penned biopics on Hustler publisher Larry Flint and oddball comic Andy Kaufman. Remember Johnny, don't get too close to the candelabra when wearing the wig.
Deep inside Hollywood
by Romeo San Vincente
LIBERACE: The Movie?
Joining the ranks of Larry Flint and Andy Kaufman, "confirmed bachelor" and Las Vegas pianist Liberace is the latest subject of a high-profile biopic. New Line Cinema has bought a script focusing on the musical prodigy whose fancy fingerwork and candelabra fetish has inspired many a show-tune queen. The project will focus on the performer's rise to fame and the nasty accusations that he was, gasp, a homosexual. The film will also deal with the precedent the piano man set for closeted homosexual stars when he sued London's Daily Mirror for printing that he was gay; he won. We're not saying that he was gay, folks. Really, we're not!
