Jared Leto To Produce And Star In Biopic Of Gay Artist Andy Warhol

There have been quite a few films that have featured artist Andy Warhol – whether it’s Men In Black suggesting he was an alien or a move about his would-be in I Shot Andy Warhol – however, there hasn’t been a really good biopic of the man himself. That’s partly because he’s such an enigmatic figure, who it would be tough to fully pin down on screen.

However, now Jared Leto is stepping up to the plate, to produce and star in a movie about the legendary pop art icon. The movie will be based on Victor Bockris’ 1989 biography, Warhol, with Wolf of Wall Street’s Terence Winter writing the script.

With his bold visual style and ability to incorporate pop culture into art, Warhol became one of the most famous artists of his era. He also had a huge influence on others, especially for those who passed through his ‘factory’, which featured a number of muses, artists and fellow taste-makers, such as trans actress Holly Woodlawn and super-hunk Joe D’allesandro.

Warhol was also gay, although he claimed to be a virgin, sometimes suggesting he was almost asexual except for an interest in voyeurism. However, others have said he did have sex, with the way he talk about his sexuality in public being a deliberate part of his mystique (many have said the public and private Warhols were very different). There’s no doubt that homoeroticism infused his art – indeed, the first works he submitted to a gallery were male nudes that were rejected for being too openly gay.

Leto is likely to face a backlash from some quarters for being a straight-identifying man playing a gay role. It’s not something completely new to him, as he faced something similar after playing a trans women in Dallas Buyers Club, a role for which he won an Oscar.