Because he's clearly not busy enough as executive producer of approximately 86 shows on US TV, Greg Berlanti also turned his hand to film directing with this year's Love, Simon. He's now attached to direct a biopic of screen legend Rock Hudson.
Hudson, who began his career as a Universal contract player, broke out in the 1950s with classics including Magnificent Obsession and All that Heaven Allows, as well as Giant, which earned him and co-star James Dean Oscar nominations. He was at the height of his career in the early '60s when he starred with Doris Day in a trio of frothy Universal romantic comedies starting with 1959's Pillow Talk.
Offscreen, however, things were turbulent, with him under the thumb of a predatory agent and a sham marriage meant to throw off the press. Hudson's career had a resurgence in the 1970s with TV series McMillan & Wife before major health issues became the dominant story surrounding the star. He was diagnosed with HIV in 1984 and spent a year denying rumors he had AIDS, not wanting to tarnish his image with a disease that was becoming an epidemic, especially in the gay community. In October 1985, he died from AIDS-related complications in Beverly Hills at the age of 59. The revelation of his homosexuality was a milestone in the fight against intolerance toward gay people and those infected with HIV.
Berlanti will produce the film with company partner Sarah Schecter, and the pair will start looking for a writer to adapt Mark Griffin's book All That Heaven Allows: A Biography Of Rock Hudson for Universal. "When Sherry Marsh brought this book to us, we jumped at the chance to be involved," Berlanti and Schechter said in a statement picked up by The Hollywood Reporter. "Rock Hudson’s life and legacy is a vital piece of both LGBTQ history and Hollywood history and has to be given the big-screen treatment it deserves."
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