After Michael Fassbender backed out of playing Thomas Wolfe in Genius, Variety reports two-time Oscar nominee Jude Law (Dom Hemingway, The Grand Budapest Hotel) will now replace him.
Genius tells the story of editor Maxwell Perkins (Oscar winner Colin Firth) and his tenure at Charles Scribner’s Sons publishing house from the early 1910s through the 1940s. Perkins is credited for helping launch the careers of some of the most renowned American writers of all time, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe. Perkins was largely responsible for the publications of Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise and The Great Gatsby and Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises.
His long relationship with Thomas Wolfe was quite notable; they worked extensively together to edit and publish Wolfe’s acclaimed Look Homeward Angel in 1929. Their relationship eventually ended after escalating tensions between them, with Wolfe ultimately leaving Scribner’s.
In his directorial debut, Michael Grandage is co-producing with his Michael Grandage Company. Grandage is known primarily for his theatre work: he was the Artistic Director for the Donmar Warehouse and Sheffield Theaters and has won several distinguished theater awards including a Tony, Drama Desk, and Evening Standard Award. He has also had minor acting roles and production experience in select television shows.
John Logan (Oscar-nominated for Hugo, The Aviator, and Gladiator) adapted the screenplay from A. Scott Berg’s National Book Award-winning biography on Perkins, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius. Oscar winner Nicole Kidman (who recently co-starred with Firth in The Railway Man) will also star.
With such an accomplished cast and creative team, we will be looking out for more news on the project, which is currently scheduled for release next year.
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