With Che‘s distribution all sorted out, it’s time for Soderbergh to start giving up information about future projects. He’s got a couple films in various stages of production, like The Informant and The Girlfriend Experience. In another time we might have a list of five or six further properties lined up already, but for now we’ll have to make do with a movie about Liberace.
My shoulders have completed their upward movement and are ready to heavily descend in the completion of a classic disinterested shrug, when I read something: Michael Douglas as Liberace. I can’t complete the shrug. I’m frozen, suddenly locked immobile in a position that suggests interest.
I can’t remember the last time Douglas did something that caught my eye. Not Traffic, a good film in which he had one of the most rote parts. Maybe Wonder Boys. The Game? Falling Down? Doesn’t matter. This could be an opportunity. But is it a chance to jump into a camp run by councelor Nathan Lane, or is it Douglas’s shot at a performance along the lines of Scheider’s Joe Gideon in All That Jazz?
Richard LaGravanese is writing the script, which might focus in part on the relationship and eventual conflict between Liberace and long-time partner Scott Thorson. Soderbergh wants Matt Damon for Thorson, which is solid, but not quite the head-turner that Douglas as Liberace could be.