It’s certainly ironic that this film is hoarding the best of Britain’s leading men in order to tell an American story, but c’est la vie. But so far, at least one of the three is coming from stateside soil.
Nicholas Hoult (“A Single Man,” “Mad Max: Fury Road”) is in talks to play Nikola Tesla in The Weinstein Company’s latest sure-to-be Oscar contender, “The Current War.” Benedict Cumberbatch (“Sherlock,” “The Imitation Game”) will play Thomas Edison and Michael Shannon will play George Westinghouse in the Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (“Glee,” “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”) -directed story about Edison and Westinghouse’s battle over the supply of electricity in America in the late 1880s. Edison championed the use of a direct current for electric power distribution over an alternating current, putting him in the path of Westinghouse for what is surely to be a….charged….drama.
The Weinstein Company will finance and distribute the “The Current War,” and while no release date has been set, you can bet Harv is angling hard for an awards season berth next year. [Variety]