Fans didn't get their wish to see him dominate 50 Shades Of Grey, so instead Matt Bomer has opted to take on a rather different icon. He'll be playing screen legend Montgomery Clift in an upcoming biopic.
Clift started out on Broadway in 1935, and made his screen debut oposite John Wayne in Howard Hawkes' Red River in 1948. By the '50s he was a major Hollywood star, only rivalled by Marlon Brando although he was less prolific. He worked with Alfred Hitchcock on I Confess, and was nominated for an Oscar for From Here To Eternity.
His career was cut short in 1956, however, when he was involved in an horrific car accident that left him with a broken jaw and nose, and permanent facial scarring. He continued to work in the likes of John Huston's The Misfits and Stanley Kramer's Judgement At Nuremberg, but never recovered from the crash. His addiction to alcohol and pain medication for his injuries amounted to what acting coach Robert Lewis called "the longest suicide in Hollywood history".
The film, according to the single-line synopsis on the IMDb, will focus on the relationship between Clift and his good friend Elizabeth Taylor during and after filming A Place In The Sun in 1951. While never a couple, Clift and Taylor remained close until the end of his life, going on to appear together in Raintree County - during which the crash happened - and Suddenly, Last Summer. Clift would also have co-starred with Taylor in Reflections In A Golden Eye, but died before filming started in 1966.
Bomer has recently had supporting roles in the likes of** In Time** and Magic Mike, but is best known as the lead on the USA Network's comedy crime drama White Collar, which goes into its fifth season next month. Deadline reports he was once a Zack Snyder favourite to play the Man Of Steel, but Bomer ultimately only got to voice him in the animated Superman: Unbound.
Monty Clift, as the IMDb has it, is written by sometime actor Chris Lovick, and directed by Larry Moss (Relative Insanity). Currently in pre-production and in the market for deals, the hope is that it'll go before the cameras next year.