HBO is moving forward with its adaptation of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, first reported by The Hollywood Reporter last year.
The telepic based on the Tony-winning play, from executive producer and director Ryan Murphy, will go into production later this year -- with a premiere eyed for 2014. Julia Roberts, Mark Ruffalo and Matt Bomer will star.
"We are so proud to be involved with this monumental project,” said HBO programming president Michael Lombardo. “Ryan has assembled an extraordinary cast to bring Larry Kramer’s landmark theatrical achievement to the screen for the first time, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to bring this important film to HBO.”
This is the first time the EP and co-creator behind Glee, American Horror Story and The New Normal has worked at HBO -- though he previously directed Roberts in the 2010 adaptation of Eat Pray Love.
The Normal Heart takes place in New York City during the early 1980s onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis. Roberts plays a paraplegic physician working with some of the earliest patients of the disease. The play debuted in 1985 at New York's Public Theatre and has since been revived in Los Angeles, London, off-Broadway and again on Broadway in 2011.
Murphy is joined by Jason Bloom (The Reader), Dede Gardner (Eat Pray Love) and Dante Di Loreto (Glee, Temple Grandin) as EPs.
