Discovery Channel to Air Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hawking to Commemorate the Physicist’s Birthday

Legendary physicist and mathematician Stephen Hawking turns 73 today and to celebrate the A Brief History of Time author's birthday, the Discovery Channel will air the 2004 award-winning film, Hawking.

Now don't get it confused. Yes, Eddie Redmayne is playing Hawking in The Theory of Everything, but this film stars Benedict Cumberbatch--who is also up for a Golden Globe this year for his portrayal of another famed mathematician: computer inventor Alan Turing. Hawking centers on Stephen Hawking's young life as a 21-year-old PhD student at Cambridge who was diagnosed with a debilitating motor neuron disease (commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease) and given two years to live. If his doctors at the were correct, Hawking should have been dead a half century ago. Luckily for the world, Hawking beat the odds and went on to find worldwide success and acclaim.

Hawking was nominated for a 2005 BAFTA and garnered Cumberbatch his first BAFTA nom. It won the Sherlock star a Golden Nymph for Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Film or Miniseries.

As for this year's award season, it's a battle of the mathematicians; Cumberbatch is up for a Golden Globe (and possibly Oscar) for his The Imitation Game performance of Turing, ditto for Eddie Redmayne for his role as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.

Hawking will air on the Discovery Channel on January 10 at ET/PT. Watch a clip below: