Respected actor Jeremy Irons is set to co-star in the Edward R. Pressman/ Prashita Chaudhary’s Cinemorphic Entertainment Company production of The Man Who Knew Infinity, the biographic film on the life of Srinivasa Ramanujan with Dev Patel starring as the revered Indian mathematician. Irons will play G.H. Hardy, the English mathematician who plucked Ramanujan from obscurity in Edwardian India and installed him in the hallowed halls of Cambridge University.
The film will be directed by Matthew Brown, who also wrote the screenplay based on the biography The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan by Robert Kanigel. Edward R. Pressman and Prashita Chaudhary of Cinemorphic are producers along with Jim Young under his Animus Films banner and Sofia Sondervan of Dutch Tilt Film.
Announcing the casting, Pressman said, “I am delighted to be working with Jeremy again. Our last collaboration on Reversal of Fortune earned an Oscar for Jeremy, and I could not overstate his amazing talent. We are very fortunate to be able to add an actor of such stature to our production.”
“I read the book last year and since then have been keen to turn this into a film,” says Prashita. “So when this opportunity came up, I jumped at it as an extension of my dream to create and spread world cinema. I’m very excited that an actor like Jeremy Irons will play the crucial role of Ramanujan’s mentor G.H. Hardy. I look forward to the film’s shoot in India and the UK next year,” she adds.
Jeremy Irons won the Academy Award® for Best Actor for his performance as Claus von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune. He is also a Golden Globe® Award, Primetime Emmy® Award, Tony Award®, and SAG Award® winner. Irons extraordinary legacy of film, television and theatre performances includes: The French Lieutenant’s Woman opposite Meryl Streep; The Mission; and David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers. He also starred in Damage and M. Butterfly and voiced the evil lion Scar in Disney’s classic The Lion King. Irons played opposite Bruce Willis in Die Hard: With A Vengeance, and also starred as Humbert Humbert in Adrian Lyne’s Lolita. Other career highlights include: Being Julia with Annette Bening; Appaloosa with Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen; and Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty. Irons received a Tony® for his Broadway performance in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing and recently appeared in London in the National Theatre’s Never So Good, as well as the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Gods Weep. Probably best known for his role as Charles Ryder in the cult TV serial Brideshead Revisited, Irons joined Helen Mirren in the award-winning television miniseries Elizabeth I. He was also recently lauded for his portrayal of iconic photographer Alfred Stieglitz in the award-winning biographical picture Georgia O’Keeffe.
Irons recent work includes the award winning independent feature Margin Call with Kevin Spacey, The Words with Bradley Cooper, and Beautiful Creatures directed by Richard LaGravenese.
In 2010, Jeremy Irons took on the role of Pope Alexander VI in the epic Showtime series The Borgias, a historical-fiction drama television series created by Neil Jordan. He also appeared in the PBS’ Great Performances television series in The Hollow Crown, produced by Sam Mendes for BBC Two.
Irons currently stars in Night Train to Lisbon, directed by Bille August. Additionally, Irons was an executive producer and featured actor in Trashed, a feature documentary directed by Candida Brady, which received a special screening at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
As previously announced, Dev Patel will portray the mathematics genius Ramanujan. Patel shot to stardom in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, followed by a leading role in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. He has a starring role in the Aaron Sorkin/HBO series The Newsroom and recently completed filming on Child 44 and The Road Within.
He is currently starring opposite Hugh Jackman in Chappie.
Matthew Brown has also written Ian Fleming, which is based on Andrew Lycett’s biography Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond, which begins production in 2014, and London Town for Dutch Tilt Films. Production is expected to commence on locations in the UK and India in 2014.
Pressman, Chaudhary, Young and Sondervan will produce with Pressman’s COO Jon Katz serving as Executive Producer along with Tristine Skyler, Xeitgeist’s Joe Thomas, Pamela Godfrey, Mark Montgomery and Min-Li Tan. Tayyab Madni will serve as an Associate Producer.
Irons is represented by CAA.
