A Hollywood-based blog asks the obvious question:
The motive behind Steven Spielberg’s co-financing and co-producing the forthcoming Broadway presentation of Aaron Sorkin’s The Farnsworth Invention, about a boy genius named Philo T. Farnsworth who invented television in high school in 1927 only to be ripped off by RCA’s David Sarnoff over the patent, seems obvious. Spielberg is looking to produce and perhaps direct a film version. The golly-gee-gosh American-ness of that name — Philo T. Farnsworth sounds like the cousin of Clem Kadiddlehopper — and the theme of an innocent genius being hoodwinked by big-city tycoons is right up Spielberg’s alley. The question is how different will the movie be (if it gets made) from Francis Coppola’s Tucker?
I guess it’s gratifying to finally see one of the biggest names in Hollywood express interest in a story that’s been floating around for 30+ years now. But I always thought the name sounded more like “Gyro T. Gearloose” than “Clem Kadiddlehopper.”