Hollywood Reporter: Alec Baldwin and Julia Roberts to Star in AIDS Drama

Alec Baldwin has landed his next, and as it looks, very interesting film role. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Baldwin will star alongside Julia Roberts, Mark Ruffalo, Matt Bomerand Jim Parsons in the Ryan Murphy directed big-screen adaptation of the Tony Award-winning drama THE NORMAL HEART. The autobiographical drama, which was originally staged Off-Broadway in 1985,  is written by Larry Kramer and is about the rise of HIV/AIDS in New York’s gay community in the 1980s.

Mark Ruffalo will be seen as LGBT activist Ned Weeks, who is trying to raise awareness about a then unidentified disease, known as “gay cancer”. Roberts is set to play Emma Brookner, a wheel-chair bound doctor who is one of the only doctors in New York talking the new disease seriously. Bomer will take over the role of Felix Turner, a gay fashion journalist and Week’s boyfriend who contracts the disease.

Baldwin is playing Weeks’ brother Ben, a lawyer having a hard time dealing with his sibling’s sexuality. Ned seeks Ben to help fund his crisis organization but realises that his homophobic brother is more interested in buying a two-million-dollar house than in backing Ned’s activism. So, Ned breaks off ties to his brother until Ben can fully accept Ned and his homosexuality.

Murphy who first mentioned the project in an interview with Deadline in August 2011 is the co-creator of Glee and American Horror Story as well as the creator of Nip/Tuck in which Baldwin guest starred. He most recently directed Roberts in the drama Eat, Pray, Love (2010).

THE NORMAL HEART will be produced by Brad Pitt’s company Plan B shingle. The project is in a very early stage yet, putting together the financing, so, no filming or even release date is set at this point. 

Original article: http://www.alecbaldwinnews.com

Source: The Hollywood Reporter