Steven Soderbergh is the director who cried wolf. He has been making the announcement that he is retiring from directing for years. He is proclaiming the end is at hand yet again and that his HBO movie BEHIND THE CANDELABRA will be his final directorial effort.
Above are two new images from the movie which follows the life of Liberace (Michael Douglas) and his lover Scott Thorson (Matt Damon). The plot revolves around Liberace’s personal life and excesses, as well as delve into the closeted relationship between the two men based on Thorson’s autobiography. After he was fired by Liberace, Thorson filed a $113 million palimony suit against the gaudy entertainer in 1982 when he was 22 which was settled four years later.
Liberace was a bit before my time but there is no doubt that Douglas is the spitting image of the singer. This is a very different role for Douglas as well as Damon, but both men have history with Soderbergh (Douglas from TRAFFIC and Damon from the OCEANS films and more) and I trust that this will be an interesting watch.
Soderbergh has had a very varied career, but BEHIND THE CANDELABRA seems to fit in with the select biopics he has helmed. If you line up ERIN BROCKOVICH, CHE, and BEHIND THE CANDELABRA, Soderbergh does not seem to have much of a pattern in his subjects aside from what interests him. That is fine with me.
BEHIND THE CANDELABRA is slated to air on HBO in 2013 so I imagine a trailer will appear shortly.