GENIUS Starring Geoffrey Rush as Einstein Comes To UK In April
National Geographic are about to launch their first scripted series, called GENIUS, and it stars the brilliant Geoffrey Rush as the iconic Albert Einstein.
Premiering Sunday 23rd April at 9pm, the drama reveals how Albert became Einstein, exploring his extraordinary professional achievements along with his volatile, passionate and complex personal relationships.
GENIUS tracks Einstein’s rise from humble origins as an imaginative, rebellious thinker, through his struggles to be recognised by the establishment, to his global celebrity status as the man who unlocked the mysteries of the cosmos with his theory of relativity. Delving deeper, the series follows Einstein’s alternately exhilarating emotions and heartlessness in dealing with his closest personal relationships, including his children, his two wives and the various women with whom he cheats on them.
Featuring Einstein’s lovers, enemies and fellow scientific luminaries, the all-star cast includes Geoffrey Rush (The Kings Speech, Pirates of the Caribbean, Shine) as the celebrated titular scientist, Johnny Flynn (Clouds of Sils Maria, Song One, Lovesick) as Albert in the years before he rose to international acclaim and Emily Watson (Theory of Everything, The Book Thief) as his second wife (…and first cousin) Elsa Einstein.
The series is set against an era of global unrest over the course of two world wars. Faced with rising anti-Semitism in Europe, surveillance by spies and the potential for atomic annihilation, Einstein struggles as a husband and a father, not to mention as a man of principle, even as his own life is put in danger.
Based on Walter Isaacson’s book Einstein: His Life and Universe the show is executive produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Gigi Pritzker, with Howard making his scripted television directorial debut with the first episode.
Filmed in Prague, Czech Republic, where Einstein lived and taught early in his career, the series also features a raft of scientific superstars from the turn of the 20th century, including Marie and Pierre Curie, Wilhelm Rontgen, Carl Jung, Werner Heisenberg and more.
GENIUS premieres globally in April on National Geographic in 171 countries and 45 languages, landing in the UK on Sunday 23rd April at 9pm.
