Soderbergh proceeds with Liberace biopic with Douglas in the lead (VAR)

By R. Kinsey Lowe

Fresh off his sale of “Che” to IFC Films, Steven Soderbergh has set his sights on directing a very different sort of biopic about Liberace, with Michael Douglas his first choice to play the flamboyant pianist, Variety reports.

The project is set up at Warner Bros., with Richard LaGravenese handling script chores and Jerry Weintraub producing.

Discussions are under way to cast Matt Damon as Scott Thorson, who sued Liberace for palimony, despite the glittery performer’s persistent denials that he was gay. Thorson settled his claim in 1986, and Liberace died in 1987 of complications due to AIDS.

Douglas, Damon and Weintraub have worked on previous Soderbergh films; Douglas appeared in “Traffic” and Damon in the “Ocean’s Eleven” movies on which Weintraub served as producer. Damon also starred in Soderbergh’s “The Informant.”

As the Liberace project proceeds through development, Soderbergh’s next movie will be “The Girlfriend Experience,” about a call girl, for Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner’s 2929 Entertainment and HDNet, the trade says.

“Experience” will mark Soderbergh’s second foray for Cuban and Wagner (first was “Bubble,” which was cast with non-professionals) under a six-picture low-budget deal for movies to be released simultaneously in theaters, on cable and DVD.