October 14, 2011 | Arts / Entertainment

Liberace biopic moving to HBO

The on-again off-again film about Liberace, starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, is on, again.

HBO has taken over the production of the biopic, which will be adapted from Scott Thorson's memoir Behind the Candelabra.

Producer Jerry Weintraub thinks Liberace will be the perfect subject matter for a movie. "He sure lived life to the fullest," he explained. "He was outrageous and the rings on all his fingers were only half of it."

"I wanted people to see the other side of Liberace," Weintraub said. "I knew Liberace when I was kid. He entertained me a lot, we had a lot of good times together.

"He was a fun guy and a brilliant artist. He was Elton John and Lady Gaga before they even dreamed of it. But he had two sides to his life — the dark side, which he couldn't talk about in those days because coming out of the closet could kill a career, and then he was this bigger-than-life artist onstage. He was living in two polar-opposite worlds. And I wanted to show that dynamic."

The film will look at the side of his life few got to see, sharing insight into his relationship with his much younger lover, Thorson.

Liberace died of an AIDS-related illness in 1987.  The film will begin shooting next summer and will be released through HBO in the US.

Matt Damon and Michael Douglas' Liberace biopic is a go for HBO [LA Times]