You’ve Gotta Read This Updated Plot Synopsis For THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN

Look, I was well aware that Mel Gibson and Sean Penn were teaming up for a new drama called The Professor And The Madman. I was even aware, on some level, that the film aimed to tell the true story surrounding the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, and what that story entailed. Sure, I said, sounds good. Lemme know when there's a trailer.

That was before I read The Hollywood Reporter's new post, the one announcing that Game Of Thrones star Natalie Dormer just joined the cast:

Gibson will play Professor James Murray, who in 1857 set about compiling the OED, one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. Penn will play Dr. W.C. Minor, who submitted more than 10,000 entries but also was an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

Dormer will play a widow whose husband was killed by Penn and whose family he wants to help. A complicated romance ensues.  

I'm told that we already knew about the first part of the above synopsis - the stuff about the Professor (Gibson) joining forces with a Madman (Penn) to make the OED happen - but that second part of the synopsis...that was news to us. Exciting news! I mean, a drama about the creation of a dictionary I can take or leave, but a movie featuring a romantic subplot wherein a violent psychotic falls for the widow of one of his victims? Holy shit, talk about burying the lede.

Anyway, good on Dormer for climbing aboard what's shaping up to be a very strange movie. And good on The Professor And The Madman in general, for being way weirder than I expected. I am fully committed to seeing you now, movie! Hurry up and happen.