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Movies & TV

12th Mar 2019

#TRAILERCHEST: Mel Gibson and Sean Penn have a beard-off in Dublin-based The Professor and the Madman

Rory Cashin

madman professor

Oscar-worthy facial growth.

Welcome to #TrailerChest, where we’re taking a sneak peek at the brand new trailer for The Professor and the Madman.

Plot’s It All About? The dictionary.

Literally.

The comprehensive edition of the Oxford Dictionary, to be precise.

Not exactly the most cinematic of set-ups, is it? Well, let us see the official synopsis has to say about it:

Professor James Murray (Mel Gibson) took on the challenge of creating the most comprehensive dictionary ever compiled, but knew that it would take him and his team over a century to compile all known definitions. However, by “crowd sourcing” the work, that is, by enlisting definitions from people all over the world, the dictionary could be compiled in mere decades.

As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W.C. Minor (Sean Penn), had submitted more than ten thousand words. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was a convicted murderer and being held at an asylum for the criminally insane.

That hasn’t helped much, has it? But at least it explains the title.

However, if you spotted Gibson and/or Penn around Dublin in early 2018, this movie is why, as the majority of the beards were filmed in the capital.

There is no set Irish release date as of yet, but it seems to be screening around the majority of Europe from late April and early May, so we shouldn’t have too much longer to wait…

Starring: Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Natalie Dormer, Jennifer Ehele, Jeremy Irvine, and Steve Coogan

Directed by: P.B. Shemran (although, on IMDb, it says Farhad Safinia, so…)

Release date: TBD

Enjoy!

Clip via Transmission Films

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