The Professor and the Madman (film)

The Professor and the Madman is a 2019 biographical drama film, directed by Farhad Safinia (under the pseudonym PB Shemran), from a screenplay by Safinia, and Todd Komarnicki, based on the 1998 book The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester. It stars Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Natalie Dormer, Eddie Marsan, Jennifer Ehle, Jeremy Irvine, David O'Hara, Ioan Gruffudd, Stephen Dillane, and Steve Coogan.

Plot
The film is about the famous professor, Sir James Murray, who in 1857 began compiling the Oxford English Dictionary and led the overseeing committee and W. C. Minor, a doctor who submitted over 10,000 entries while he was undergoing treatment at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.

Cast

 * Mel Gibson as James Murray
 * Sean Penn as Dr. William Chester Minor
 * Natalie Dormer as Eliza Merrett
 * Eddie Marsan as Muncie
 * Jennifer Ehle as Ada Murray
 * Jeremy Irvine as Charles Hall
 * David O'Hara as Church
 * Ioan Gruffudd as Henry Bradley
 * Brendan Patricks as Winston Churchill
 * Stephen Dillane as Dr. Richard Brayne
 * Steve Coogan as Frederick James Furnivall
 * Laurence Fox as Philip Lyttelton Gell
 * Aidan McArdle as Defense Attorney Clarke
 * Adam Fergus as Alfred Minor
 * Anthony Andrews as Benjamin Jowett

Production
Mel Gibson worked on adapting the book The Surgeon of Crowthorne for over 20 years before production began to develop in 2016. Gibson, who originally intended to direct, hired his Apocalypto co-screenwriter Farhad Safinia to replace him, while he remained in the role of James Murray. Sean Penn entered early talks to join the film as William Chester Minor in August 2016. In August, Natalie Dormer signed on for a role. In September, Ioan Gruffudd joined the cast.

Filming commenced in Dublin in September 2016. Set photos from November revealed Steve Coogan, Laurence Fox and Jennifer Ehle as part of the cast.

Legal issues
In July 2017, Gibson and his production company Icon Productions sued the production company Voltage Pictures over their desire to control certain aspects of the production. They refused final cut privileges and an additional five days of production in Oxford.

On 19 June 2018, Judge Ruth Kwan of the Los Angeles County Superior Court rendered a judgment denying Gibson's motion for summary adjudication.

Release
In January 2019, Vertical Entertainment acquired US distribution rights to the film. Safinia was not recognized for directing or co-writing the film, credit going instead to P.B. Shemran. It was released on May 10, 2019.

Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 46% based on 13 reviews. IMDb has this film rated at 7.4/10. Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com gave the film 1 1/2 stars, calling it "the latest fiasco in bad movie history ... the presence of Gibson and his co-star Sean Penn give the project a stuffy sanctimoniousness." Jay Weissberg, reviewing for Variety, stated: "For those that have been anticipating this curious, much-delayed oddity, the good news is that Gibson is fine; it's everything else that doesn't work."