Actor, raconteur, vodka backer and relatively recent Empire** webchat visitor Dan Aykroyd hasn’t been on the big screen since 2008’s War, Inc. (we’re choosing to ignore his vocal turn in Yogi Bear since our therapist advised us to block it from memory). But he’s back with a vengeance this year, as he’ll show up in The Campaign alongside Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis and has just signed on the dotted for a role in Steven Soderbergh’s Behind The Candelabra.
The film, which will debut in the US on cable channel HBO before heading to cinema screens internationally, focuses on the life of Liberace and follows the relationship with his live-in lover, Scott Thorson. Michael Douglas and Matt Damon are playing Liberace and Thorson, and Aykroyd will be Seymour Heller, the musician’s long-time manager, who disapproved of the pairing.
Soderbergh is directing from a script by Richard LaGravenese, itself based on Thorson’s memoir My Life With Liberace. It’s in pre-production now and will shoot this summer.
The Campaign will hit our screens on September 28.