The Theory of Everything: The Screenplay

by Anthony McCarten

Based on Jane Hawking’s best-selling memoir Travelling to My Life with Stephen, Anthony McCarten’s screen adaptation for the hit movie The Theory of of Everything, starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, is one of the most talked about and award-worthy scripts of the film season. In the film, we follow Jane and Stephen Hawking from their first meeting to the first signs of Stephen’s illness and their wedding, through to the challenges of having to deal with disability and unexpected success – and the strain this puts on the loving couple’s relationship. The result is a feat of cinematic brilliance and screenwriting bravura from the author of several acclaimed novels.

144 pages, Paperback

First published December 19, 2014

About the author

Anthony McCarten’s debut novel, Spinners, won international acclaim, and was followed by The English Harem and the award winning Death of a Superhero, and Show of Hands, all four books being translated into fourteen languages. McCarten has also written twelve stage plays, including the worldwide success Ladies’ Night, which won France’s Molière Prize, the Meilleure Pièce Comique, in 2001, and Via Satellite, which he adapted into a feature film and directed, premiered at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. Also a filmmaker, he has thrice adapted his own plays or novels into feature films, most recently Death Of A Superhero (2011) which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Anthony divides his time between London and Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Nick Martin]

Soundtrack + Felicity Jones keep me coming back to this one.

The script is straightforward, and the scenes feel very convenient to the story they’re a part of, yet the emotional through-line (presumably translated to the page from Jane Wilde’s book) that the plot adheres to works—and works well—for this type of filmic illustration of a remarkable shared life.

[Lindsey]

Loved this, short and sweet - a great read