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 .