Sun Valley Film Festival Slate Features 'The Man Who Knew Infinity,' 'I Saw the Light' (EXCLUSIVE)
By Matt Brennan | Thompson on Hollywood!
February 5, 2016 at 8:20AM
Along with Nat Geo Wild's portrait of a baby elephant, 'Little Giant,' Matthew Brown's biopic, starring Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons, will open the fifth edition of the festival, March 2 - 6.
"The Man Who Knew Infinity"
This year's lineup also includes several favorites from the festival circuit, such as Trey Edward Shults' 2015 SXSW prizewinner "Krisha," Joachim Trier's Cannes competition entry "Louder Than Bombs," Don Cheadle's Miles Davis biopic "Miles Ahead," and popular Sundance 2016 selection "The Fits." Sony Pictures Classics' delayed "I Saw the Light," starring Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams, will close the festival in advance of its March 25 theatrical release.
In addition to screening more than 60 films in all, SVFF will see the return of the festival's popular Coffee Talks with industry insiders, including filmmaker Oliver Stone — recipient of the 2016 SVFF Lifetime Vision Award — as well as a Screenwriters Lab led by Mark Duplass and Nat Faxon. Additional films, including shorts, will be announced at a later date. Read the list of feature selections below.
EXCERPT
EYE IN THE SKY
Director: Gavin Hood
Writer: Guy Hibbert
Producers: Ged Doherty, Colin Firth, David Lancaster
Cinematography: Haris Zambarloukos
Cast: Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman, Barkhad Abdi, Jeremy Northam, Iain Glen
EYE IN THE SKY stars Helen Mirren as Colonel Katherine Powell, a UK-based military officer in command of a top secret drone operation to capture terrorists in Kenya. Through remote surveillance and on-the-ground intel, Powell discovers the targets are planning a suicide bombing and the mission escalates from “capture” to “kill.” But as American pilot Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) is about to engage, a nine-year old girl enters the kill zone, triggering an international dispute reaching the highest levels of US and British government over the moral, political, and personal implications of modern warfare. 102 min./United Kingdom
THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY
Director/Writer: Matthew Brown
Based on the biography by Robert Kanigel
Producers: Edward R. Pressman, Jim Young, Joe Thomas, Matthew Brown, Sofia Sondervan, Jon Katz
Cast: Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons, Devika Bhise, Stephen Fry, Toby Jones, Jeremy Northam
Based on the untold story of one of the greatest minds of his generation, The Man Who Knew Infinity charts the incredible life of Srinivasa Ramanujan (Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel), whose genius for mathematics takes him from the slums of India to Cambridge University in the early 20th-century. Spurred on by his mentor G. H. Hardy (Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons), Ramanujan overcomes racism and the rigidity of academia to revolutionize the field with his startlingly original theorems, which he attributes to divine inspiration. Driven by the engaging rapport between Patel and Irons as two vastly different men who find common ground in the world of numbers, The Man Who Knew Infinity is a fascinating look at how an unlikely, cross-cultural friendship changed the world. 114 min./United Kingdom. US PREMIERE
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