Liberace film was ‘too gay’ for major Hollywood studios, Steven Soderbergh says
US director Steven Soderbergh gives a press conference to present the film “Haywire” at the Berlinale film festival on February 15, 2012 in Berlin.
Steven Soderbergh has said that no studios in Hollywood wanted to touch his upcoming film about the late Liberace, "Behind the Candelabra," because it was "too gay."
The filmmaker was forced to settle with turning his upcoming the biopic of the flamboyant pianist into a TV movie after he was snubbed by every major studio in Hollywood, according to a report on WENN.
The telemovie generated some pre-publicity when pictures surfaced online of Matt Damon with a long blonde wig.
Damon was said to be portraying the alleged gay lover of the legendary pianist, played by Michael Douglas, ABC reported.
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Soderbergh, who won an Oscar in 2001 for his movie "Traffic," said he had approached top movie executives in "every" studio about "Candelabra" but no one was interested in investing the necessary $5 million to produce it.
The rejections came despite the success of "Brokeback Mountain," starring Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Australian actor Heath Ledger, in 2005.
Soderbergh told TheWrap.com:
"Nobody would make it. We went to everybody in town. We needed $US5 million. Nobody would do it. They said it was too gay. Everybody. This was after Brokeback Mountain, by the way, which is not as funny as this movie. I was stunned. It made no sense to any of us."