Words: Charlie Gardiner-Hill
Yesterday, the trailer for this year’s hotly anticipated Steven Hawking biopic hit the internet and it’s starting to cause some fuss – for good reason. The dramatic clips see Les Miserables star Eddie Redmayne and Crazy in Love actress Felicity Jones take centre stage, as director James Marsh highlights the remarkable relationship forged between Hawking and his first wife Jane. Although they later divorced, Jane stood by the now world-famous scientist through his early academic success and his battle with Motor Neurone disease, which we see doctors tell him will leave him dead in 2 years.
Although we’ll have to wait for further trailers, or the film itself, to tell the full story, it appears that the biopic opens with Hawking’s first encounter with Jane in 1964 and follows them through till around 1985, when the scientist adopted his now iconic computerised voice after a life-saving tracheotomy left him mute.
Marsh’s focus on Hawking’s early career and the inspirational tone of the trailer suggests that the film won’t touch on Hawking’s later troubles in his personal life which included divorce, re-marriage and accusations, later dismissed by Hawking himself, that his second wife had abused him.
The film is set to be shown at the Toronto Film Festival and will hit US cinemas on 7th November, timing which would suggest it is hoping to collect some awards. That remains to be seen, but if the trailer is anything to go by, Redmayne may have a chance at some (gold) silverware.
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