American writer, producer, and director of both film and television Greg Berlanti has been optioned to direct a biopic about the highly influential and once extremely popular american actor Rock Hudson. Berlanti is involved with numerous CW television shows such as DC’s Supergirl and Arrow, as well as the recently popular Riverdale. The option comes from Universal Pictures and Mark Griffin’s book All That Heaven Allows: A Biography of Rock Hudson.

Hudson had his breakout roles in the 1950s and became a Hollywood leading man with classic films like Giant and All that Heaven Allows. He was one of the many heartthrobs of hollywood’s “golden age” and his life has been written about numerous times by himself and plenty of other authors. He lived a pretty tumultuous life being controlled by a rapacious agent and attempting to hide his homosexuality. He was the first major celebrity to die from an AIDS related illness when he died of such complications in 1985. This was extremely important as HIV was becoming a widespread issue within the gay community and Hudson’s death helped to make it more of a mainstream issue.

Both Hudson’s career and death have been very important to the LGBTQ+ community, especially in Hollywood, which would need talented and careful hands behind the biopic. Griffin’s book, from which it will primarily adopted, is known for being a very thoughtful view of the events of Hudson’s life and Berlanti has had recent success and praise for his recent film Love, Simon which is an adaption of a novel that tells the story of a gay high school student. This gives a glimmer of hope for the eventual product of this endeavor.

Universal is currently searching for writers for the project. Berlanti will also produce the film alongside Sarah Schechter and Sherry Marsh while Universal is set to eventually distribute the film.