Biopic About Trailblazing Mathematician Ada Lovelace Being Developed

Rachel Montpelier
Women and Hollywood
2 min readOct 17, 2016
Portrait of Ada Lovelace by Alfred Edward Chalon: Wikimedia Commons/ Science & Society Picture Library

A pioneering female mathematician’s untold story is hitting the big screen. Alison Owen and Debra Hayward’s production company, Monumental Pictures, has announced it will make a biopic about Ada Lovelace, the “Victorian mathematician and computer science icon” and daughter of Lord Byron, The Hollywood Reporter writes.

Lovelace “penned what is now recognized as the first algorithm intended to be carried out by a machine,” THR writes. Further, Lovelace’s notes helped Alan Turing, the WWII code-breaker and inspiration behind 2014’s “The Imitation Game,” decipher the German’s Enigma Code.

“We feel privileged to be carrying the torch for such a trailblazer,” commented Owen. Hayward added, “Much like Turing, Ada’s achievements were downplayed and denied. She was a woman out of her time — a computer pioneer with a daredevil streak. We can’t wait to bring this complex and brilliant women to the screen.”

According to THR, Monumental is teaming up with Google and The Science & Entertainment Exchange program from Britain’s National Academy of Sciences to develop the Lovelace biopic. Shawn Slovo (“Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight”) will write the screenplay. No word on who will direct yet, but we are pulling for another brilliant woman to helm this movie about the avant-garde Lovelace.

Monumental Pictures has several other women-centric projects on its docket, including the Hulu series “Harlots and an adaption of Caitlin Moran’s bestselling novel “How to Build a Girl.

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