Two comic book villains will get to show their literary side when Guy Pearce (a.k.a. Aldrich Killian in Iron Man 3) and Dominic West (a.k.a. Jigsaw in Punisher: War Zone) join the cast of renowned theater director Michael Grandages Genius.
Pearce will take on the role of troubled “The Great Gatsby” writer F. Scott Fitzgerald while Dominic West will play macho “The Sun Also Rises” scribe Ernest Hemingway, both ex-patriots and pals who were edited at publishing giant Charles Scribner’s Sons by Max Perkins, to be played by Oscar-winner Colin Firth. Grandage’s cinematic debut also stars Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Laura Linney.
Based on the National Book Award winning biography “Max Perkins: Editor of Genius,” by A. Scott Berg (adapted by John Logan), Genius centers on the real-life relationship between literary giant Thomas Wolfe (Law) and renowned editor Max Perkins (Firth). Finding fame and critical success at a young age, Wolfe is a blazing talent with a larger-than-life personality to match. Perkins is one of the most respected and well-known literary editors of all time, discovering such iconic novelists as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Wolfe and Perkins develop a tender, complex friendship. Transformative and irrepressible, this friendship will change the lives of these brilliant, but very different men forever.
Pearce recently starred in The Rover, while West–best known for his starring role on HBO’s “The Wire”–will be seen on Showtime’s new fall series “The Affair,” and will provide a voice in Pixar’s sequel Finding Dory. Tim Bevan (Les Miserables, Atonement) will executive produce Genius alongside producers James Bierman, Grandage and Logan.
The friendship between Fitzgerald and Hemingway was most recently portrayed onscreen in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, where they were played by Tom Hiddleston and Corey Stoll, respectively.
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