News related to Anthony McCarten

Author of Brilliance

Congratulations, Anthony McCarten!

15 Jan 2015|

Anthony McCarten nominated for best writing (adapted screenplay) for “The Theory of Everything,” the life story about Stephen Hawking, which was also nominated for best picture.

Anthony McCarten is also the author of Brilliance (Hawthorne Books), a novel about Thomas Edison and J.P. Morgan set during the war of the currents.

Anthony McCarten, author of Brilliance (Hawthorne, Oct 2013), producer and screenwriter for The Theory of Everything, getting a lot of movie buzz.

25 Nov 2014|

Theory of Everything: Getting Jane Hawking’s permission,” by Amy Kaufman for the Los Angeles Times

A decade ago, screenwriter Anthony McCarten showed up on Jane Hawking’s doorstep. He hadn’t given Hawking—ex-wife of the famous theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking—warning that he’d be coming. But he had read her autobiography, which detailed her intense marriage with the scientist—and he wanted to turn her story into a movie.

“I just thought, ‘I have to try and get...Forward

“Stephen Hawking drama, starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, gets splashy awards launch at festival,” by Tim Gray at Variety

09 Sep 2014|

Congratulations to Anthony McCarten, author of Brilliance (Hawthorne Books, 9/14) and the screenplay for the Stephen Hawking drama, “The Theory of Everything,” which premiered Sunday at the Toronto Film Festival, and is already earning strong reviews and could score attention as a best picture contender and artisan categories, in addition to acting honors for Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones.


“Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones confidently enter the awards race with their new Stephen Hawking...Forward

Historical Novels reviews Anthony McCarten’s Brilliance

06 Nov 2013|

Thomas Alva Edison, the subject of Brilliance, presided over a workshop that produced hundreds of inventions patented in his name, perhaps most iconically the electric lightbulb. His life has become a sort of Rorschach test for novelists and historians. Was he the benign and brilliant “Wizard of Menlo Park”? A cheat who underpaid his employees and claimed their inventions as his own? A cut-throat competitor who would use any means to drive his rivals out of business?

Brilliance is a short,...Forward

An Interview with the Author, Part Four

14 Oct 2013|

What keeps you awake at night?

Everything that can wait until tomorrow.

When were you happiest?

When I realized that a congenial monotony is the best anyone can hope for. I’m not sure how old I was or what I was doing — perhaps I was 13 and hiking up Mount Egmont with a heavy load on a beautiful day.

If you would get a free first-class air ticket, where would you fly to?

My youth, and I’d like my seven brothers and sisters to fly there with me.

To read the entire blog, go to Powell’s...Forward

Anthony McCarten Guest Blog Post Powell’s Books: An Interview with the Author, Part Three

11 Oct 2013|

What is the purpose of stories? And of storytelling?

To fool you.

Do you believe that people like or want to be fooled from time to time?

If we did not have the impulse and ability to believe in the impossible, we would not have religion, democracy, or marriage.If we did not have the impulse and ability to believe in the impossible, we would not have religion, democracy, or marriage.

Do you believe in any superstitions?

I am so superstitious that I think even discussing this subject is...Forward

Anthony McCarten Guest Blog Post Powell’s Books: An Interview with the Author, Part Two

10 Oct 2013|

Today I’m continuing an extensive interview with myself that began yesterday.

Recently, Mount Tongariro hit the headlines spitting ash and lava. You yourself grew up underneath the crater of Mount Taranaki in New Plymouth. How is life at the foot of an active volcano?

Mount Taranaki is a dormant volcano, not currently active, but not quite dead, either. Like its nearby mountainous sisters, the possibility remains that it might one day violently awake, and while that seems a remote...Forward

Anthony McCarten Guest Blog Post Powell’s Books: An Interview with the Author, Part One

09 Oct 2013|

For my second blog post (ever), I wish to conduct a simple (but extensive and even possibly endless) interview with myself. Its purpose is to force the reluctant subject into inadvertent admissions or revelations that the reclusive subject has hitherto kept secret.

You were born in New Zealand. True or false?

Too much importance is placed on where you were born. We are forged in the smithies of our souls, as Joyce put it.

I have a very stereotyped idea of a writer: they drink; they are a...Forward

Anthony McCarten Guest Blogger for Powell’s Books: My First-Ever Blog Post

08 Oct 2013|

Hi to anyone who is reading.

This is my first blog post. Not just for this site, but first ever. As I’ve been told, the idea here is to reveal what I’ve been up to — aside from my great pleasure in seeing my current novel, Brilliance, released in the U.S. by the courageous people at Hawthorne Books! — but I should also mention that I’m currently producing a film (along with Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, and Tim Bevan) that I have written, which charts the lives of Professor Stephen Hawking and...Forward

Anthony McCarten’s next film Theory of Everything is about Stephen Hawking

17 Jun 2013|

Anthony McCarten’s, author of Brilliance, next screenplay is Theory Of Everything and will star Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking. To read more go to Deadline Breaking News.

Hawthorne Books releases Brilliance by Anthony McCarten

For immediate release 16 Apr 2013

Contact: Rhonda Hughes

503-327-8849 rhughes@hawthornebooks.com |

Independent publishing house Hawthorne Books today announced the availability of Brilliance by Anthony McCarten.

Brilliance is about Thomas Edison and the “world’s banker,” J.P. Morgan, who become embroiled in the War of the Currents, which pits their Direct Current electrical system against the Alternating Current system promoted by George Westinghouse and is the brainchild of Edison’s former assistant, Nikola Tesla.  Brilliance brings to life the birth of the modern era, providing an...Forward

Making the Memoir (Mostly) Respectable by Rhonda Hughes: A Foreword Reviews Interview

09 Mar 2013|

ForewordMemoir can be a tricky genre in terms of quality. Talk about why you believe in it and also about your selection criteria/method.

RhondaI often find myself at parties defending memoir. At a Christmas Eve party, I gave one of my friends Jay Ponteri’s upcoming book, Wedlocked, which is about a married man with a young son who falls in love with his local barista. I published this book firstly because it is well written and because it poses questions regarding monogamy and marriage and...Forward

Can’t wait to read Anthony McCarten’s novel Brilliance out in October? Read his previous novel, Show of Hands, (Simon & Schuster) to tide you over.

30 Jan 2013|

See Anthony talking about Show of Hands  His novel about what happens when a desperate car dealer advertises a competition with a simple premise—that each contestant must keep one hand on a car at all times, and the last one standing will drive away the owner of a new Land Rover—he sets in motion a chain of events that brings together an oddball group of individuals, each with a desperate need to win.

For the contestants, this publicity gimmick represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a...Forward