Doc on Tab Hunter in the Works

Filmmaker Jeffery Schwarz is taking on a documentary version of famed 1950s star Tab Hunter's autobiography. The actor wrote 2005's well-reviewed Tab Hunter Confidential with collaborator Eddie Muller, recounting the heartthrob's upbringing as a stable boy and overnight rise to fame as a leading man and Warner Bros. staple.

According to a press release on the documentary, the film will explore the manufactured image within the confines of the 1950s studio system that created an all-American bachelor boy persona crafted to appeal to the growing teenage female moviegoing audience, and how the actor's secret life as a gay man threatened to destroy his career.

Hunter worked on more than 40 feature films including Damn Yankees, Battle Cry, Gunman's Walk, and The Pleasure of His Company. Decades later, he worked with John Waters and the late star Divine to produce the cult film Polyester.

Allan Glaser and Neil Koenigsberg will produce along with Schwarz, who will act as coproducer and director.