To Begin the World Over Again: The Life of Thomas Paine is a moving, thought provoking and inspiring film about one of the most overlooked American founders, Thomas Paine. Paine was also the most outspoken of the Deists from America’s revolutionary generation. Perhaps this is why he’s also one of the most neglected in the history books, in spite of the fact that he was one of the few indispensible revolutionaries.
 
This film is of the brilliant one man play which stars and was written by Ian Ruskin. Ian Ruskin trained as an actor in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and then worked for the next 15 years in England in repertory companies and in television and film. He came to Los Angeles, California in 1985 and appeared in televisions shows such as MacGyver, Murder She Wrote and Scarecrow and Mrs. King. Ian does such a wonderful job portraying Thomas Paine that after watching the film, I felt like I had just spent an hour talking personally with Thomas Paine!
 
The cinematography for this film is done by the two-time Oscar winning cinematographer, Haskell Wexler.