A film directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon sounds like it should be going to cinemas, doesn’t it? Well, it won’t be, as the increasingly powerful US cable network HBO has stepped in to finance the flick, which means that while the Leberace biopic will finally get made, it’ll be a TV premiere.

Soderbergh has been trying to get the Liberace flick off the ground for a couple years now, with Douglas attached to the flamboyant lead role, and more recently Matt Damon signing on to play Scott Thorson,  the pianist’s younger live-in lover.

Everyone involved in the movie is gushing over getting together with HBO, but it’s difficult to tell whether the move toTV really is because they feel the channel will be the best place for Behind The Candelabra, or if it’s because nobody else wanted to pay for it. The former is more likely than you might expect, simply because HBO is likely to give Soderbergh more freedom to do whatever he wants than a studio would, and has done stirling work with the likes of the mini-series Mildred Pierce.

The director commented, “From the inception of this project, we’ve had two priorities: getting it right creatively, and getting as many people as possible to see it. HBO’s fearless approach to original programming and their unparalleled ability to pull in viewers make them the perfect fit for us. Apart from my hair growing back, I couldn’t be happier.”

Shooting with start next summer, so expect to see it (probably on Sky Atlantic in the UK) sometime late 2012 or 2013.

General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser