July 16, 2014 - 14:41 AMT
“Man Who Knew Infinity” goes into production after long wait

After eight years of development, “The Man Who Knew Infinity” will go into production next month in the U.K. with Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons and newcomer Devika Bhise starring, Variety said.

Patel will portray math genius Srinivasa Ramanujan and Jeremy Irons will play G.H. Hardy, who recognized Ramanujan’s brilliance despite the latter’s lack of formal training and education and plucked him from obscurity in Edwardian India. Bhise will portray Ramanujan’s wife.

Shooting will start Aug. 3 at Trinity College, Cambridge — it will be the first film to be shot at Trinity — followed by two weeks in various locations in South India.

David Garrett of Mister Smith Entertainment has come on board to handle international sales.

The film is an Edward R. Pressman and Animus Films production in association with Xeitgeist and Marcys Holdings. Pressman and Animus’ Jim Young will produce along with Sofia Sondervan of Dutch Tilt Film, Pressman’s chief operating officer Jon Katz and Xeitgeist’s Joe Thomas.

Matthew Brown will direct and wrote the screenplay based on the biography “The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan” by Robert Kanigel. Pressman and Young acquired film rights to the biography in 2006, 15 years after it was first published.

Patel came on board the project last year at Cannes and Irons signed on in Decemeber. Bhise has recently joined the cast; she played the goddess Namagiri in “The Partition,” a play based on Kanigel’s book, at the Spotlighters Theater in Baltimore.

Bhise has a supporting role in an episode of the upcoming MTV series “One Bad Choice.”

Pressman has produced and exec produced dozens of films over the past four decades including “Wall Street,” “Bad Lieutenant” and “Reversal of Fortune,” for which Irons won the lead actor Oscar.

Photo: Ellis Parrinder