On paper, there’s no reason why “The Professor And The Madman” shouldn’t work. An adaptation of the great book by Simon Winchester, it tells the story behind the creation of the first Oxford English Dictionary by Professor James Murray (played by Mel Gibson), whose work became complicated thanks to the participation of Dr. W. C. Minor (played by Sean Penn), an inmate at an insane asylum. It’s a fascinating tale, and last years, cameras rolled on the movie with Farhad Safinia (the writer behind “Apocalypto”) directing. However, it might’ve been easier if everyone involved tried to make their own dictionary.
Last month, Gibson fired a legal volley at Voltage Pictures for multiple breaches of contract for not honoring his authority over final cut, failure to provide a budget, failure to shoot “critical” scenes at Oxford University, and screening an unapproved cut at Cannes for distributors. Well, Voltage is now answering some — but not all —of the allegations.
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From their perspective, they paint Gibson and Safinia as being uncooperative and unreasonable. The film reportedly now runs 2 hours and 40 minutes, and when an attempt was made to feel out a 2-hour cut, everyone agreed that the resulting effort wasn’t very good. Even more, Voltage contends that picture is currently over budget by $1.3 million (which, in the realm of movies going over budget, is peanuts), so they didn’t want to spring for $2.5 million of additional shooting at Oxford, adding that Safinia had previously okayed using the Library of Trinity College as a stand-in before changing his mind at the last minute. Moreover, with the picture already running ridiculously long, Voltage hardly sees the point of adding more material.
Oh yeah, complicating matters even more? Safinia has been working without a contract. Oops.
“Mr. Gibson claims to have final cut while refusing to watch the Picture, work on the Picture, or edit it,” Voltage’s Nicolas Chartier claims.
It all sounds like a mess and the kind of thing that won’t be solved soon. So, here’s to watching “The Professor And The Madman” sometime in the 2020s. [Variety]