'Liberace' Biopic: Producer Jerry Weintraub Discusses The HBO Film

How The Legend Finally Got His Story Told

After four years, a distributor search and a battle with cancer, the story of one of the 20th century's greatest entertainers will finally get told. And the man behind the project promises that it will be well worth the wait.

First announced in 2008, the biopic of Liberace finally found its home last week at HBO, with the cable network announcing that it will air the Steven Soderbergh-directed film after it starts production next summer. Titled "Behind The Candelabra," the film gets its name from the memoir of Scott Thorson, Liberace's younger lover. Michael Douglas, whose bout with cancer pushed back the film's initial production date, will play Liberace, while Matt Damon will tackle the role of Thorson.

Speaking to The Huffington Post over the phone, producer Jerry Weintraub said that despite its source material, the film won't just focus on the relationship between Liberace and Thorson; all of the singer's life will be chronicled.

"It's all in there. It's an open book," he said. "We're gonna talk about both the fact that he had this flamboyant, exciting life, but back in that day, he couldn't come out of the closet, it was not done. And he had a high debt part of his life, too."

Weintraub, in fact, is the perfect man to shepherd the project.

"I knew him in Las Vegas, as an artist, I was working with Sinatra at the time," Weintraub remembered, "and I knew him in Palm Springs, and I knew him in LA. We were socially friendly."

That gives him a certain insight when it comes to casting, and he was more than willing to wait for Douglas to recover to make the film happen. "I think he's brilliant. I think he's a great actor," Weintraub said. "This is a role of a lifetime. There's only one Liberace and he was very flamboyant and it's an exciting character and I think he'll kill it."

While it may seem counter-intuitive to have such a talented director and cast do a one-off film for television, instead of the big screen, Weintraub said that it was his decision to take it to cable, not theaters.

"Creatively, they don't get involved as the studios do, number one," he said. "We know what we're doing. And on the business front, they have a big subscription base and they can show it to a lot of people."

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