Back in August, we got a few set pics from Steven Soderbergh’s biopic of Liberace, Behind The Candelabra, which sees Michael Douglas as the man himself, with Matt Damon playing his younger lover, Scott Thorson. While you wouldn’t expect this starry line-up to be making something for TV, it’s actually an HBO Films production and is due to debut on US television next year (although it may still get a theatrical release in Europe).
Now Bleeding Cool has grabbed some of the first shots from the film, which were included in HBO’s 2012 ‘Yearender’ video (which now seems to have been made private, so we can’t post it here, sadly). They show Michael Douglas looking suitably flamboyantly and pretty much a dead ringer for the real Liberace. And It has to be said Matt Damon’s also looking pretty good with bouffant hair and 70s style, even if he is about 10 years too old to play Thorson, who was in his teens and 20s when he knew Liberace.
The movie follows the relationship between Liberace and the far younger Thorson, which started after they met when latter was just 17, in 1976. Thorson became his companion and is said to have had a five-year relationship with Liberace, which ended due to the entertainer’s alleged promiscuity and Scott’s drug problems.
Although the pianist and showman went to his grave swearing he wasn’t gay, this front was challenged after Liberace and Thorson split up and the younger man sued the entertainer for palimony. They settled out of court and are said to have reconciled their differences shortly before Liberace died of AIDS in 1987.
Click below to enlarge the images.
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