Rachel Weisz set to portray actress Elizabeth Tayor in new biopic; film to shed light on veteran's AIDS activism

Rachel Weisz is set to play the legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor in a new biopic titled, A Special Relationship. According to Variety, the film will be told through the lens of Taylor’s friendship with her assistant Roger Wall and will explore her journey from actress to activist. Directing duo Bert & Bertie (Katie Ellwood and Amber Finlayson) will helm the feature. A Special Relationship will be produced by See-Saw Films’ Iain Canning and Emile Sherman (The King’s Speech) and is adapted from a screenplay by Academy Award-winner Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire). [caption id=“attachment_7566531” align=“alignnone” width=“914”] Elizabeth Taylor, Rachel Weisz | Twitter[/caption] “Audiences are clearly fascinated by the private lives of iconic Hollywood stars,” Canning and Sherman said. “There is no one more iconic than Elizabeth Taylor, and Simon Beaufoy has written a role that shines a light on Elizabeth’s humor and humanity, which will be beautifully brought to life through the extraordinary talents of Rachel Weisz.” The film will be set in the mid-1980s, when Taylor first hired Wall, a gay man who grew up in poverty in the homophobic Deep South—an experience far removed from the glitz and glamour that surrounded Taylor since she was a child. Even so, the pair developed a deep friendship that inspired Taylor to speak out in the fight against AIDS. Taylor won Oscars for her films Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Butterfield 8 and also received nominations for a total of five times. She is widely known for her crusading role in AIDS activism. Meanwhile, Weisz won a best supporting actress Oscar for her turn in 2005’s A Constant Gardener and was nominated in the same category earlier this year for The Favourite .