Hackford Goes to Tenn

Perhaps I spoke to soon; the recent announcement that Taylor Hackford will helm a film about the life of legendary playwright Tennessee Williams officially confirms that gay biopics are indeed all the rage.

Hackford (who received an Academy Award nomination for directing the Ray Charles bio Ray) will direct Tenn, a look at the "formative years of playwright Tennessee Williams, whose dysfunctional family life fueled some of his most acclaimed stage works". Williams' legacy includes such stage and screen classics as A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly Last Summer, all of which use gay subject matter to fan the flames of their scandalous plots.

Producer Michael Ohoven likens the script to his other gay biopic, Capote. Like that Truman Capote bio, Tenn will rely heavily on whoever is cast in the leading role. Actors should be falling over themselves to get a crack at the complex and fascinating Williams, even more so considering the track record of Tenn's makers -- both Jamie Foxx and Philip Seymour Hoffman won Oscars for their respective films. All I have to say is, "Peter Sarsgaard, get your agent on the line now".