Liberace: The Movie!

It seems some projects never die. The long rumored feature biopic of the legendarily flamboyant entertainer Liberace has resurfaced, and with some unexpected names attached to it.

Variety reports that Academy Award winner Steven Soderbergh will direct, with his Traffic star Michael Douglas as Mr. Showmanship himself and his Ocean's Eleven star Matt Damon as his boyfriend, Scott Thorson. You may recall the palimony suit that Thorson hit Liberace with, claiming they were lovers, which was ultimately settled out of court. A year later, Liberace died due to complications from AIDS. Even adding all that up (not to mention pictures like this one), some people still insist he wasn't gay.

There has been two previous made for television biopics of Liberace, starring Andrew Robinson and Victor Garber, respectively. At one time, Robin Williams was rumored to play Lee on film, but nothing ever came of that (he has the (hairy) legs for it though, again referencing the attached picture). Richard LaGravanese is currently working on the script for this one, which has no set schedule at this point.

And in more gay biopic news, Alan Alda, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker, Paul Rudd and David Strathairn have all signed up to join James Franco as Allen Ginsberg in Howl.

Contrary to previous reports, documentary filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman will be making their narrative feature debut with the project, which will focus on the obscenity trial launched to censor Ginsberg's groundbreaking book-length poem, the Howl of the title.