Matt Smith To Play Robert Mapplethorpe In Biopic

The BBC reports:

Matt Smith is to take on the role of avant-garde photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in a forthcoming film. The Doctor Who star will be directed by the award-winning Ondi Timoner in the biopic simply titled Mapplethorpe, according to Deadline.

Zosia Mamet, known for the HBO comedy-drama Girls, has been cast to play Patti Smith, Mapplethorpe’s one-time lover and best friend. Mapplethorpe became famous with his shocking sexual images of New York.

He was very much a documenter of life throughout the 1970s and 80s and his instrument of choice was for a long time a Polaroid instant camera, rather than a sophisticated multi-lens alternative.

Mapplethorpe died of AIDS in 1989, aged 42. An HBO documentary about his life called Mapplethorpe: Look At The Pictures made its premiere at Sundance this week.