FOLIO 01 / IV

The Gold Bug Variations

A Feature Film Based on the Acclaimed Novel by Richard Powers

Directed by the Award-Winning Director Mark A. Levinson

MUSIC Four Bass Notes
BIOLOGY Four Base Molecules
LIFE Two Intertwined Love Stories

Jan O'Deigh's Case File.
click on any card to flip for more information
Stuart Ressler lab notebook
Aug. 1957

A — T  ·  G — C

5' A T G C T A G G T C A A G 3'

3' T A C G A T C C A G T T C 5'

codon    amino acid?

if 4³ = 64, only 20 a.a.…

— the cipher must be degenerate

Goldberg playing again. Glenn G.

— 30 variations on one bass.

In 1957, a young molecular biologist arrives at a mid-western university determined to unravel the mystery of life — the code of the newly discovered DNA molecule.

REEL · 01
Aria
BWV 988
— J.S. Bach —

But he is derailed by the discovery of music and love.

IBM · 5081 · 80-COL · 12-ROW
— Manhattan On-Line · graveyard shift · 1985 —

A quarter century later, a young couple team up to investigate a related mystery — who is the refined, over-educated gentleman who works as a graveyard shift computer operator in a dull Brooklyn data processing company?

Aria — from the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988

J. S. BACH · 1741

CAST — CONFIDENTIAL

Stuart Ressler (1957)casting in progress
Stuart Ressler (1985)casting in progress
Jan O'Deighcasting in progress
Franklin Toddcasting in progress
Dr. Jeanette Kosscasting in progress
ANNOUNCEMENTS — FALL 2026
813.54  ·  P.O.WERS, R.

POWERS, RICHARD · b. 1957

The Gold Bug Variations : a novel / by Richard Powers. — New York : William Morrow, 1991. — 639 p. ; 24 cm.

Time Magazine "Book of the Year" · National Book Critics Circle Award · "A formidable masterpiece" — Kirkus.

PROPERTY · BPL

Four interconnected characters — like the four molecules of DNA, and the four bass notes of Bach's Goldberg Variations — twist around each other in mirrored patterns as they try to decipher the complex codes of biology, of music, and of love.

— Directed by —

Mark A. Levinson

Director of Particle Fever, The Bit Player, The Universe in a Grain of Sand, Prisoner of Time — Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication · National Academies of Science Communication Award · Robert Sievers DaVinci Award. Former physicist. Experience on over forty-five feature films.

"I think films and formulas are both theories about how the universe operates."

— Based on the novel by —

Richard Powers

Won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory and the National Book Award for The Echo Maker. The Gold Bug Variations was named Time magazine's Book of the Year.

"Life consists of propositions about life."

— Development partners —

  • Sundance InstituteScreenwriters Lab
  • Film IndependentFast Track · Producers Lab
  • Sloan FoundationThree Science-in-Fiction grants
  • Gotham (IFP)No-Borders International
Folio IV · Da Capo — the aria returns —
Folio II · in the post

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