Zachary Quinto And JJ Abrams Creating Film Based On Secret Relationship Between Tab Hunter And Anthony Perkins
Zachary Quinto and JJ Abrams are currently working on a joint venture together to tell the story of the secret love affair between Tab Hunter and Anthony Perkins in the upcoming Paramount film, Tab & Tony.
As Variety reported, the movie will be based on the 2005 autobiography Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star, which tells the story of Hunter coming to terms with his rise to fame in Hollywood in the 1950s while simultaneously coming to grips with his true identity and sexuality.
With Zachary Quinto and JJ Abrams acting as producers for the new film, Tab Hunter’s partner, Allan Glaser, will also be involved in the production of the film along with Neil Koenigsberg. Koenigsberg will be remembered as being one of the producers involved in the 2015 documentary, Tab Hunter Confidential.
As Tab & Tony is still in the very beginning stages of its development, it is reported that no directors or actors have been picked for the film yet, but playwright Doug Wright has been chosen to come up with the screenplay.
As Wright won a Pulitzer Prize for I Am My Own Wife, it is believed that he will lend just the right touch to the film, detailing the complex relationship between Tab Hunter and Anthony Perkins.
Anthony Perkins, who passed away in 1992 due to complications stemming from AIDS, is fondly remembered for his role as Norman Bates in the film Psycho, along with its many sequels. Other popular films the actor starred in include Murder on the Orient Express, The Matchmaker, Catch-22, and On the Beach.
Tab Hunter, meanwhile, is very close to turning 87 and has been featured in 40 films over the course of his life, which include The Burning Hills, Damn Yankees, Sea Chase, and Battle Cry.
Perkins and Hunter first laid eyes on each other in 1956 by the pool at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles while Tab was under contract at Warner Bros., four years before the brooding and persuasive Anthony Perkins was chosen for his role in Psycho.
As the relationship between the two men could have had disastrous results for both of their careers, Tab and Anthony kept their love for each other secret, refusing to reveal their relationship to even their closest friends. While the two were often spotted on double-dates with other women, after the date had ended, it was Hunter and Perkins who ended up going home together.
As The New Yorker reports, Tab Hunter is only too well aware that in the distant past in Hollywood there were once “men like me who have lived very hidden lives. And it’s got to be hopefully a little step in a direction where they don’t feel as bad about it.”
With Tab & Tony set to hit Hollywood screens at some point in the future, Tab Hunter and Anthony Perkin’s beautiful relationship appears to be in just the right hands with Zachary Quinto and JJ Abrams.
