First stills of Ryan Murphy’s ‘labour of love’ The Normal Heart

The first stills from Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of Larry Kramer’s iconic play The Normal Heart, about the creation of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis during the budding of HIV/AIDS, have hit the web.

The film, which will premiere on HBO in spring 2014, stars Mark Ruffalo, Julia Roberts, Matt Bomer, Jim Parsons and Taylor Kitsch.

“It’s a movie about AIDS, but it’s also really a civil rights movie,” Murphy says. “I think it’s more timely than ever before. It’s really about the quest to be seen not as a gay person or a straight person, but just a person . . . It’s an activist movie that also has a really great love story in it. Of everything I’ve done in my career, I think it is the biggest labour of love.”