Sunday, October 5, 2014

Stephen Hawking biopic, 'Theory of Everything,' opens in USA November 7

From Space.com:

A new trailer for the upcoming Stephen Hawking biopic "The Theory of Everything" is out, and it takes viewers even deeper into the personal life of the famed astrophysicist.

The 2.5-minute trailer, which came out Oct. 1, is the second Focus Features has released to tout the film, which hits theaters in the United States on Nov. 7 — interestingly, the same day as the highly anticipated Christopher Nolan sci-fi epic "Interstellar."


The first trailer made it clear that "The Theory of Everything" will be a tear-jerker centering on the relationship between Stephen Hawking and his first wife, Jane. The new one reinforces that notion, implying that Jane's love helped Hawking overcome huge obstacles to become perhaps the most famous scientist since Albert Einstein.

"I love him, and he loves me," Jane, played by Felicity Jones, says in the new trailer. "We're going to fight this illness together."
 
"This illness" is ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Doctors diagnosed Hawking with ALS in early 1963, giving him just two years to live. Hawking was 21 at the time, and he had just begun a relationship with Jane, whom he met at Cambridge University in England.

Hawking, now 72, defied those long odds. Over the years, the disease robbed him of his mobility and his speech — he is a wheelchair user and uses a computerized system to communicate now — but he still managed to conduct research into black holes, the Big Bang and other topics, as well as write a number of best-selling books.

Stephen Hawking — played in the upcoming film by Eddie Redmayne — and Jane married in 1965 and had three children together. The couple divorced in 1995. "The Theory of Everything" is based on Jane Hawking's 2007 memoir, "Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen."