Trailer for Mel Gibson and Sean Penn's Oxford Dictionary Movie THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN
You might not think that the creation of the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary would be exciting or interesting. But this new movie, The Professor and The Madman, tells this story, and it actually actually looks really good!
Mel Gibson takes on the role of Professor James Murray, who begins work compiling words for the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary in the mid-19th century. He ends up receiving over 10,000 entries from a patient at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum , Dr William Minor, who is played by Sean Penn.
The film is said to delve into the “madness, genius and two obsessive men who changed the course of literary history.”
The movie comes from screenwriter Farhad Safinia (Apocalypto), and he will make his feature directing debut on the film. The movie also stars Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones), Ioan Gruffudd (San Andreas), Jeremy Irvine (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again), Steve Coogan (Stan & Ollie), Jennifer Ehle (The Miseducation of Cameron Post), and Eddie Marsan (Ray Donovan).
This movie was shot in 2016, but hasn’t been released because it’s been stuck in a lawsuit between Gibson’s Icon Productions and Voltage Pictures over controlling certain aspects of production, including final cut. That’s all been settled now, and Voltage Pictures will release the film. There’s no release date yet, though.