Guy Pearce and Dominic West have signed on to appear in Michael Grandage’s directorial debut, Genius. Best known for his work in the theatre world, Grandage has assembled a solid cast for his first feature. Colin Firth, Laura Linney, Nicole Kidman and Jude Law have already committed to the project, which is based on the novel Max Perkins: Editor Of Genius by A. Scott Berg.
Pearce is slated to play F. Scott Fitzgerald, in this biopic of one of the writing world’s most well-respected editors, Max Perkins. In real life, Perkins served as editor on Fitzgerald’s This Side Of Paradise. The flick is expected to focus on one of the editor’s stint at Scribner, and in particular, his relationship with writer Thomas Wolfe.
No word on who West is touted to play, but we know it’s not Wolfe, as he wll be played by Law. Whoever his character may be, we’re confident that both he and Pearce will bring another touch of genius to the movie (sorry, I had to).
Genius starts shooting in the UK this October. Check out the plot summary below and let us know what you think.
The driving force behind such literary superstars as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe, Max Evarts Perkins was the most admired book editor in the world. From the first major novel he edited(Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise(to the last(James Jones’s bestselling From Here to Eternity(Perkins revolutionized American literature. Perkins was tirelessly committed to nurturing talent no matter how young or unproven the writer.
Filled with colorful anecdotes about everything from Perkins’s struggles to convince the old guard at Scribners to publish his visionary (and often controversial) authors to his falling out with one of his most brilliant discoveries, Thomas Wolfe, MAX PERKINS reveals with insight and humor the professional and personal life of one of the most legendary figures in the history of American publishing. Given unprecedented access to the correspondence between Perkins and his writers, Berg has fashioned a compellingly thorough biography that is as entertaining as it is informative.
