Genius
Short description
Genius is a drama set in New York during the 1920s, centred on Maxwell Perkins, a book editor at Scribner's who has already brought writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway to the public. When an enormous, unruly manuscript by an unknown author reaches him, Perkins becomes convinced he has found a genuine talent. The writer is Thomas Wolfe, whose vast output and difficult temperament make the relationship between the two men both productive and demanding, and Wolfe's companion Aline Bernstein and Perkins's wife Louise are drawn into the strain it creates.
The film was directed by Michael Grandage from a screenplay by John Logan, with Grandage and Logan among the producers. Colin Firth plays Perkins, Jude Law plays Wolfe, and Nicole Kidman and Laura Linney appear as Aline Bernstein and Louise Saunders, alongside Guy Pearce as Fitzgerald and Dominic West as Hemingway. It is the first feature Grandage directed, preceding National Theatre Live: Red, My Policeman, Dawn French Is a Huge Twat and Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical.
Released in June 2016, the film runs 104 minutes. Its worldwide box office came to about 6 million USD. On IMDb it holds a critics' rating of 5.8/10 from 112 reviews, while on TMDB it has a rating of 6.5/10 from 734 votes, so audiences there rated it somewhat more favourably than the critics did.
What's left behind the scenes
- The biographical book by A. Scott Berg, “Max Perkins: Editor of Genius,” on which the film is based, was published in 1978 and won the prestigious National Book Award two years later.
- Nicole Kidman described Aline Bernstein, the role she played in "Genius," as a woman who was "dark-haired, fiery, and strong." "She should have been born in another era," the actress said. "I like characters like that."
- This is the third joint project for Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman, and the first in which they do not play a married couple. The actors previously starred together in the war drama "Retribution" (Jonathan Teplitzky, 2013) and the thriller "Before I Go to Sleep" (Rowan Joffe, 2013). This is the second joint project for Kidman and Jude Law. In 2003, Kidman and Law starred together in Anthony Minghella's war drama "Cold Mountain."
- To get into the role, Jude Law visited the Thomas Wolfe House (1900-1938), a museum dedicated to the writer, in his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina.
- This is the directorial debut of Michael Grandage in cinema.
- Following "Genius," Nicole Kidman and Michael Grandage collaborated on the play "Photograph 51," which was staged at the "Noël Coward Theatre" in the West End (the western part of central London, where theatrical and concert life is concentrated). Kidman received the "Evening Standard Theatre Award" for her role in the play.
- The distribution company "Roadside Attractions" from Los Angeles, California, planned to premiere the film at the Berlin International Film Festival, which is held annually in February, and to begin theatrical release in July 2016. The company applied the exact same strategy to Bill Condon's film "Mr. Holmes" (2015), which also starred Laura Linney and received high praise from critics and audiences.
- Michael Fassbender was originally slated to play Thomas Wolfe, but due to scheduling conflicts and delays in the film's production, the actor was forced to leave the project. Jude Law took on the role of Wolfe.
- In 2007, the screenplay for the film "Genius" was included in the so-called "Black List" of the most promising, but unrealized, screenplays.
- According to the screenwriter, John Logan, who first read A. Scott Berg's novel in 1983, work on the film continued for 15 years.
- Jude Law and Michael Grandage had previously collaborated on theatrical productions of "Henry V" and "Hamlet".
- In reality, Eileen Bernstein was 20 years older than Thomas Wolfe. Nicole Kidman is only 5 and a half years older than Jude Law.
- The film's cast includes two Academy Award winners (Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth) and two nominees (Jude Law and Laura Linney).
- Throughout the film, Perkins, played by Colin Firth, appears wearing a hat. He removes it only once, when reading the writer’s posthumous letter at the very end of the film.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
