Julia Roberts and Alec Baldwin are the newest stars to sign on to the Tony Award-winning drama, A Normal Heart. The stage show which is about the beginnings of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, will be adapted into a big screen movie. This is the latest project for Glee creator, Ryan Murphy, who already has an all-star cast set.
In addition to Roberts and Baldwin, White Collar's Matt Bomer, The Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons, and Mark Ruffalo are all set to begin filming. This autobiographical story written by Larry Kramer debuted off-broadway in 1985. It then started again in 2004 in Los Angeles and London, and made it to Broadway in 2011.
The Huffington Post explains that Ruffalo will be playing Ned Weeks, the character that will be the first to raise concerns about the epidemic. Baldwin will step in to play his brother, while Roberts will play a doctor confined to a wheelchair, being the only one taking the newfound disease seriously. Parson had previously acted in the Broadway version and is set to reprise his role of a Southern gay activist. Bomer's character will portray Felix Turner, a gay fashion journalist and Week's boyfriend.