Mark Ruffalo & Matt Bomer Lovers in HBO's ‘The Normal Heart’

The ups and downs of the movie-adaptation of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart seem to have finally smoothed out. HBO announced today that they greenlit the movie to be directed by Ryan Murphy, according to Deadline.

We first told you almost a year ago that Julia Roberts will play Emma Brookner, the paraplegic physician who treats several of the earliest victims of the disease, rather than Ellen Barkin, who played her in the recent Broadway production (and currently stars in Murphy's The New Normal). It seems that Mark Ruffalo will still play Ned Weeks (the Kramer stand-in) and Matt Bomer (the only out actor we know who is currently a part of the movie) will play Felix Turner, a reporter who becomes Ned's lover.

No confirmation if Alec Baldwin and Jim Parsons are still attached to the project. Kramer is adapting the play for the screen himself, and the film should begin filming this fall in New York City and air in 2014.

The 2011 Broadway revival garnered five Tony nominations, winning for Best Revival, Best Featured Actor for John Benjamin Hickey as Turner and Best Featured Actress for Ellen Barkin as the doctor.