Channing Tatum Tackling 'Struck by Genius' Adaptation
By Borys Kit
With his turn in Foxcatcher receiving strong notices, Channing Tatum is setting his sights on more drama projects and against-type roles that offer an opportunity to produce.
Sony has picked up the film rights to the best-seller Struck by Genius as a Tatum vehicle. The memoir by Jason Padgett (with Maureen Ann Seaberg) centers on a man who became an instant math marvel at the age of 31.
Tatum is set to produce Struck by Genius with his Free Association shingle partners Reid Carolin and Peter Kiernan. The two are producing alongside Michael Costigan, the former head of Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions who last produced the gritty drama Out of the Furnace, starring Christian Bale and Woody Harrelson.
The project will be developed as a possible acting vehicle for the in-demand star, who is hot off Sony’s summer hit 22 Jump Street.
As he recounts In Genius, published April 22, Padgett was an extroverted partying college dropout when he was jumped outside a karaoke bar, suffering a traumatic brain injury. During his recovery, he became a new person: a math whiz who saw geometric shapes around him. The book details his sudden savant syndrome, chronicling how he became a hermit, dealt with issues such as PTSD and chronic pain and eventually found some salvation via art.
Hannah Minghella brought the project into the studio and will oversee.
Tatum will be shooting Magic Mike XXL this fall. Foxcatcher opens Nov. 14.
He is repped by UTA, Management 360 and Hansen, Jacobson. Paradigm repped the authors on behalf of Stephen Barrat Writers House.
Photo credit: Arthur Mola/Invision/AP
