Where to watch The Theory of Everything (2014)

Trivia & production notes

• Screenwriter Anthony McCarten first became interested in Stephen Hawking after reading A Brief History of Time in 1988, then spent years developing a screenplay based on Jane Hawking's memoirs before the project was officially greenlit.
• Producer Lisa Bruce spent three years persuading Jane Hawking to agree to a film adaptation through extensive conversations before the project moved forward.
• Eddie Redmayne spent six months researching Stephen Hawking's life by watching every interview he could find and worked with dialect coach Julia Wilson-Dickson to master Hawking's accent and speech patterns.
• Director James Marsh studied archival photographs and documentary footage of Stephen Hawking to recreate scenes with authenticity, attempting to reproduce them as accurately as possible.
• Stephen Hawking gave his blessing for the film and offered to lend his own synthesized voice for the latter part of the story, which is the actual electronic voice he uses.
• The Cambridge May Ball scene, set in 1963, was filmed before principal photography officially began, using pyrotechnic displays created by Titanium Fireworks, the same company that developed fireworks for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
• Felicity Jones incorporated Jane Hawking's mannerisms and speech patterns into her performance after meeting with Jane multiple times during preparation, which amazed Jane when she saw the finished film.
• Filmmakers initially attempted to recreate Stephen Hawking's synthesized voice during editing but were unsatisfied with the result, prompting Hawking to grant permission to use his actual electronic voice in the final film.
• When Stephen Hawking attended a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, a nurse wiped a tear from his cheek as the lights came up.
• Principal photography began on October 8, 2013, at the University of Cambridge, with the May Ball outdoor shoots completed first, followed by five weeks of studio filming for the remainder of production.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article The Theory of Everything (2014 film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.