So Steven Soderbergh‘s final film — the man still has plenty of non-movie stuff he’s working on — arrives in May on HBO, but don’t let television tag fool you. “Behind the Candelabra” is still widely tipped to be included somewhere in the Cannes Film Festival lineup, and while the summer movie season has no shortage of exciting offerings, if the idea of Michael Douglas and Matt Damon playing lovers in a biopic of Liberace isn’t enough to put this on the top of your must-see list, we don’t know what to tell you. But perhaps this will change your mind.
A brand new teaser — this time, with actual footage from the movie — has dropped, and as usual from Soderbergh, it’s a complete 180 from his last effort, the B-movie thriller “Side Effects.” Glitzy, glamorous and even a bit gaudy, the director has previously said the movie was “too gay” for movie studios, and it certainly doesn’t hold back, with Damon and Douglas getting in the bath together. But one has to remember, that at the time, Liberace’s sexuality and behind-closed-doors activities would have ruined him.
“He was the biggest act in the world, and the whole time, petrified of his secret coming out,” Damon said to EW. “You see him in the movie going to a sex store — nowadays, he’d be [exposed] on Twitter so fast.” So we’d wager the drama will be there to match some of the more over-the-top elements.
It’s definitely unlike anything the director has done in a while, perhaps hinting tonally at something close to “The Informant!” But either way, this is a pretty enticing little tease and we can’t wait to see more. “Behind the Candelabra” airs on May 26th.