Out of the Margins

"Hi, let's kick things off with my introduction to the screenplay..." 

That's how Anthony McCarten, award-winning novelist, playwright and screen-writer, begins his annotated first edition of The Theory of Everything. It's like we're reading the script alongside him, through his eyes even, in this gorgeous, well-annotated lot. "This intro brings it all back. What a joy and a privilege it was." The writer circles the words "The physics of love" and shares how important that line was: "a key line that steered the story, a twin examination of physics and love." 

Perhaps as well as we're getting to know Anthony McCarten better, we're also a little bit closer to the man himself at the heart of the screenplay: "Stephen remained on the fence about God, if a little more on the Godless side, but he did allow for the inexplicable." 

Read the scene that was "cut from the film but was fun on the day"! 

Throughout Anthony sprinkles the text with notes on explaining complex science to a general audience: "I found it very useful, dramatically to people my film with dunderheads like me who required simple explanations even a fool could comprehend!" 

There's a beautiful moment where the playwright describes his insistence that the actor playing Brian carries Stephen up the stairs, to the director's horror ("I won"). 

There's much more; for example, enjoy discovering the Anthony McCarten's homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey! 

Anthony McCarten has adapted several of his novels, acclaimed by critics and readers alike, for the big screen. In 2015 he was nominated for two Oscars and won two BAFTAS for his screenplay The Theory Of Everything, starring Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking.