Jake Gyllenhaal to play Leonard Bernstein
Jake Gyllenhaal. Image: AFP/Robyn Beck via AFP Relaxnews
Cary Fukunaga of “True Detective” fame is directing Jake Gyllenhaal in a film about the life of 20th century composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein.
He was the composer behind “West Side Story” and “On the Waterfront”, collecting more than a dozen Grammy Awards over a 40-year period.
Now Leonard Bernstein’s life will be arranged for cinema with Jake Gyllenhaal of “Brokeback Mountain” and “Nightcrawler” in the lead role.
The project is based on Humphrey Burton’s 1994 biography and adapted for the screen by Michael Mitnick, a writer and editor on HBO’s 1970s NYC music scene drama “Vinyl”.
Born in 1918, Leonard Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic from 1958 to 1969, the first American-born conductor to do so.
Married to Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre, they separated in 1976 as he made public acknowledgment of his homosexuality. Following her 1977 diagnosis of terminal cancer, Bernstein moved back in with her until her death in 1978.
He continued to conduct and compose until his 1990 passing at the age of 72. JB
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