'liberace' Pic Tickles Woods

Cary Woods' Independent Pictures has bought "Liberace," a script about the flamboyant pianist by writers Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer.

Described as in the vein of "The People vs. Larry Flynt," the biopic focuses on the rise of the musician's career until his death in 1987. Wladziu Valentino Liberace was a child prodigy who emerged as a concert soloist by the time he was 11 and performed with symphony orchestras in his teens. As an adult in the 1950s, Liberace became a star, with records and assorted television and film appearances, helped by his flamboyant dress and lifestyle; he often wore rhinestones, gold lame, furs and sequins and played with a candelabra on his piano.

The performer made headlines in 1959 when he won a suit against London's Daily Mirror when it implied that he was homosexual.

Brillstein-Grey's Peter Safran, who reps Friedberg and Seltzer, brought the project to Independent exec Gina Mingacci. She will oversee the project for the company, which will produce with Brillstein-Grey. A search for a director and star is in progress.

Friedberg and Seltzer, who are also repped by CAA, recently set up horror spoof "Scream If You Know What I Did Last Halloween" at Dimension Films. They wrote Leslie Nielsen spoof "Spy Hard."