The script for Dallas Buyers Club has been around for years. At one point in 2008 it looked like it was all set to go ahead with Lars and the Real Girl’s Ryan Gosling and Craig Gillespie re-teaming for the flick, at various points the likes of Brad Pitt have also been interested, while Marc Forster considered it as a directing project. However none of that ever happened, but the film refused to die.
Instead the LA Times reports that things are starting back up again, with Matthew McConaughey set to star, with Young Victoria helmer Jean Marc Vallee directing.
Part of the problem with getting the film made is that it partially deals with AIDS, a subject that many still feel will be a barrier to box office success. Indeed while previous attempts have see producers Strike Entertainment working with Universal on the project, the studio has now backed out and Strike is hoping it’ll have more luck as an indie flick.
Set in the 1980s, the movie is about Ron Woodroof, a Dallas electrician who was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986, and given just a few months to live. However he refused to accept the doctor’s prognosis, and instead created a smuggling operation for alternative treatments, which were then illegal, and tried to get them into the hands of as many AIDS patients as possible. He wound up living six more years and saved or prolonged the lives of many others.