[Movies] HBO Greenlights Ryan Murphy Film The Normal Heart Posted by Joseph Lee on 01.05.2013
It will star Julia Roberts and Mark Ruffalo...
Deadline reports that HBO has greenlit The Normal Heart. HBO made the announcement at TCA. It is a movie adaptation of the Larry Kramer play. It will star Julia Roberts and Mark Ruffalo, with Ryan Murphy directing and executive producing with Jason Blum, Dede Gardner and Dante Di Loreto. Kramer will write the film version
The film will begin production later this year in New York City for a 2014 debut. The play is set in New York City in the 1980s at the beginning of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Roberts will play Emma Brookner, a paraplegic physician who treats several of the early victims of the disease. Ruffalo will play Ned Weeks, who sees the damage first hand in the gay community and tries to find answers. Matt Bomer will play Felix Turner, a reporter who becomes Ned's lover.
It has been in development for some time, with Barbra Streisand involved at one point. Kramer was growing frustrated and worried that it would never be adapted. This version was announced in 2011 with Murphy directing after optioning the rights to the play, Ruffalo starring and Brad Pitt's Plan B producing. In 2012, Roberts, Bomer, Alec Baldwin and Jim Parsons joined the cast. In November, there were rumors that it was going to HBO.
The play debuted at the New York Public Theater in 1985. It was also produced in Los Angeles and London. The 2011 Broadway revival earned five Tony nominations including Best Revival, Best Featured Actor for John Benjamin Hickey as Turner and Best Featured Actress for Ellen Barkin as the doctor.
This will be a reunion for Roberts and Murphy after she starred in his film Eat, Pray, Love. Bomer previously appeared on Glee.
