Scorsese Eyeing Liz Taylor-Richard Burton Love Affair

The world was left a little less glamourous when Elizabeth Taylor passed away earlier this year.

Her presence is still very much felt in Hollywood. Plans for a biographical film had been underway, but they’ve now taken a backseat to an even more dramatic story. Taylor’s legendary romance with actor Richard Burton, a love affair spanning 13 years and two marriages/divorces. After starting an affair on the set of their film “Cleopatra”, the couple married in 1964. Both were previously married to other people at the time and their romance was a major scandal in Tinseltown, even earning the wrath of the Vatican for “living in sin”. The pressures of fame, the constant glare of the public eye, and their volatile natures put an end to their marriage ten years later. But such was their intense passion for each other, they re-married in 1975. But this time, the marriage was even more short-lived and they divorced the following year. After that, they went their separate ways, but by all accounts they never really got over each other.

This romance was torrid and certainly fascinating enough to fill an entire book. And it did, in the form of “Furious Love”, by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger (published just last year). Which is the source material upon which Paramount Pictures is drawing to make a lavish, big-budget film. The studio has tapped the great Martin Scorsese to direct, and are currently in negotiations with Oscar-winning screenwriter David Seidler (“The King’s Speech”) to adapt the book. Scorsese is no stranger to the biopic, having done industrialist Howard Hughes (“The Aviator”), boxer Jake LaMotta (“Raging Bull”) and gangster Henry Hill (“Goodfellas”). He’s never done an out-and-out romance before, so this should be a chance to flex those muscles.

Paramount is looking at Natalie Portman to play Liz Taylor, which isn’t surprising news at all, since the young actress is on a hot streak ever since her “Black Swan” Oscar. I’m not sure I like this choice. As lovely as Portman is, she doesn’t strike me as a full-blooded, matured woman, as Taylor was. She’s a little too waif-like, whereas Taylor was earthy and fulsome (in every sense of the word). Still, it’s too early to say, as no deals have actually been finalised yet. More news as it comes to Electroshadow…