After a legal dispute between star Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions and production company Voltage, Deadline is reporting that the period drama The Professor and the Madman will receive a theatrical release in the U.S. later this year courtesy of Voltage Pictures. An international poster for the film, which details the origins of the Oxford International Dictionary, has also been released featuring Gibson and co-star Sean Penn.
The film, directed by Apocalypto co-writer Farhad Safinia, ran into trouble back in 2017, with Gibson and Safinia getting into a dispute with Voltage CEO Nicolas Chartier over shooting locations, budget and schedule, which reportedly saw the duo walking off the set. Gibson’s Icon then filed against Voltage in an effort to prevent the movie from being screened to potential distributors, but a judge dismissed the suit last year. According to Deadline, Gibson will not play any part in the film’s promotion.
The Professor and the Madman is based upon the book The Surgeon of Crowthorne sees Gibson as Professor James Murray, who collaborated with an asylum inmate William Minor (Penn) to compile the Oxford English Dictionary. Also featuring in the cast of the $25 million production are Natalie Dormer (Game of thrones), Ioan Gruffudd (Forever), Jeremy Irvine (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again), Steve Coogan (Stan & Ollie), Laurence Fox (Lewis) and Jennifer Ehle (The Miseducation of Cameron Post).
