Glee Creator Ryan Murphy Will Direct Mark Ruffalo In ‘The Normal Heart’
It’s an interesting year forMark Ruffalo. His directorial debutSympathy For Deliciousdidn’t light up the festival circuit, but he’s getting great notes for his work inThe Kids Are Alright. And he’s got to deal with Kevin Feige, who named him as the new Hulk forThe Avengers. But he’s also got some smaller stuff coming up.
For instance, there’s the adaptation ofLarry Kramer’s partially autobiographical playThe Normal Heart, about the early days of the AIDS crisis in New York. Ruffalo will play central activist Ned Weeks, a founder of an HIV advocacy group. And now there’s confirmation that he’ll be directed byRyan Murphy, creator ofGleeand director ofRunning With Scissorsand this week’sEat Pray Love.
Ruffalo mentioned Murphy’s involvement not long ago, but his exact role was uncertain. Murphy just toldMTV,
I’m directing [The Normal Heart] from Larry Kramer’s beautiful script and we’re going to shoot that in June of next year…I think it’s an important story and I think Mark Ruffalo is just beyond brilliant so I’m very excited to be directing him.
Mark Ruffalo previously described the story and its appeal in another interview withMTV,
It’s basically a story of when the AIDS outbreak happened in New York…It wasn’t really taken seriously, I think specifically because it was ‘the gay cancer,’ they called it. I think it’s a really interesting time in America. I think to see someone who really does change the world by his commitment and he’s even totally by himself at times, there’s still a real power in that. I love that it’s a people-powered movement that actually changed the way our government looked at this epidemic. I think there’s a real powerful message to that and something that we forget. We can get really cynical about what we can do, it gets stacked against us and they’re all corrupt — and at the end of the day, everything starts with people. The reason they’re there is because of us. "
