Just wondering what you all thought of it if you watched it.
I only got to see about the first half before I got called away to work, so I'll withhold final judgment. But in the part I saw, Michael Douglas was really good as Liberace. Seemed to really be enjoying himself in the part.
My guess is that the distributors just didn't think "Candelabra" would do much at the box office. And I can't say that they're wrong. I doubt that a bio pic about Liberace would have pulled the kind of young audience that a movie needs to be a box office success. My guess is that they ultimately made the right call by debuting it on TV. It probably got a lot more attention that way.
Interesting though, it was not made for TV, it was only shown on HBO as the film producers could not find a willing distributor here in the US:
"Though the movie will be shown in theaters internationally and in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, Mr. Weintraub was certain that its frank depiction of gay characters had scared off American distributors.
“They’re not going to see it in Macon, Ga., or in the Bible Belt, I’ll tell you that, “ he said. “But a lot of those people will watch this in their home that wouldn’t go to the theater.”"
Hard to believe that a "frank depiction of gay characters" would scare anyone in 2013?
Full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/arts/television … wanted=all
I wouldn't be surprised if Michael Douglas got an Emmy nomination. He's an old big star, and he played totally against type.