A couple of weeks ago we reported that Eddie Redmayne was in talks to play Stephen Hawking in a biopic of the physicist’s early days, Theory Of Everything. Now he’s signed on the dotted line and it looks like he’s getting a co-star as Deadline reports that Felicity Jones has signed up to play Hawkings first wife, Jane.
The film will focus on the relationship between Hawking and Jane. He met her shortly before he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease while studying at Cambridge at the age of 21. They then stayed together and married, even when he was told he might not live for more than two years. Of course that prognosis turned out to be completely wrong as he’s still with us now.
They were married from 1965 to 1991 and had three children together. In recent years they’ve become great friends again, so there is kind of a happy ending.
Working Title is backing the movie, with Man On Wire’s James Marsh set to direct. Filming will start later this year.