Rock Hudson, Hollywood Icon, Is Getting a Biopic

Right now, rock legend Freddie Mercury is making waves at the box office in the form of the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, telling the story about how his band Queen rose to fame and would make an impact on music for generations.

More importantly, the film shines a light on Freddie Mercury’s sexuality, though the frontman never addressed it out in the open. Now, Universal Pictures is looking to the history of the silver screen for a new biopic that will focus on a Hollywood icon forced to hide his own sexuality until he was close to his death bed.

Rock Hudson was a huge Hollywood star with one of those classic long-term studio deals intended to make him a star at Universal. Hudson was given plenty of publicity honors by various entertainment magazines like Star of the Year and Favorite Leading Man, but he was never able to show the viewing public who he really was, always hiding the fact that he was gay despite endless questions about such matters in his private life.

Deadline has word on the Rock Hudson biopic, which will be directed by Greg Berlanti, the executive producer who has made a name for himself working on the interconnected DC Comics television shows Arrow, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl. He recently set a new record for being a producer with 15 live-action scripted series on the air, the most of any TV producer at one time. But he also directed the romantic comedy Love, Simon.

The Rock Hudson biopic will give Universal an opportunity to focus on the struggle gay men had in the old days Hollywood, often forced to live double lives by being straight in the spotlight and gay in private. Hudson became an important figure in the 1980s after being diagnosed with HIV in 1984 and succumbing to complications from AIDS in 1985. He was one of the first mainstream celebrities to be diagnosed with the disease.

(Excerpt) Read More at: SlashFilm.com