Producer ‘thrilled’ to feature openly gay lead actors in HBO film about AIDS crisis

The producer of a series about the AIDS crisis in the US has said it is “sort of thrilling” to feature gay leading men in the show.

The show features Matt Bomer and Jim Parsons in leading roles.

Ryan Murphy, the creator of famed series Glee, is producing ‘The Normal Heart’. He said he did not choose actors based on their sexuality.

He also said in the five years he’s been working on the project, social attitudes had changed a great deal.

Bomer, 36, the star of White Collar, came out in February 2012 as he accepted an award for HIV/AIDS activism in California.

40-year-old Parsons plays awkward scientist Dr Sheldon Cooper in the hit CBS comedy show The Big Bang Theory.

The film, to be shown in Spring 2014, is adapted from Larry Kramer’s 1985 play about the early years about the AIDS crisis.

It stars Julia Roberts, Mark Ruffalo and Taylor Kitsch.

HBO is also considering a sequel to the Normal Heart.