In-between reporting for Marvel duty in “Avengers: Infinity War” where he will be reprising his role as Doctor Strange and a potential future series of the BBC’s “Sherlock”, Benedict Cumberbatch has found time to return to his stock-in trade of playing prickly scientific geniuses and this time, he’s taking on an American icon in what may be an early Oscar contender.
The first trailer has arrived for The Weinstein Company’s biopic “The Current War” in which Cumberbatch plays Thomas Edison, the legendary inventor and erstwhile developer of the phonograph and the motion picture camera. The film dramatizes the fraught moment in history where two of the greatest minds of the late 19th century, Edison and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon, subbing for the once-attached Jake Gyllenhaal) battled over the right to control the electricity marketplace of the 1880s, with Edison’s company favouring direct current and Westinghouse pushing for alternating current.
While the subject may sound somewhat dry, Harvey Weinstein sees plenty of contemporary parallels in the story, explaining to Empire that “Edison and Westinghouse’s rivalry is the ultimate tale of competition driving ingenuity […] Theirs was a battle of intellect, a race of creativity and technological innovation that we see echoed in the self-made inventors dominating spaces like Silicon Valley.” Here’s the synopsis from TIFF:
In 2017, it’s nearly impossible to imagine a world without electric light. Yet the technology that illuminates our homes and projects images onto our screens dates back only the length of two lifetimes. The Current War, featuring brilliant performances from Oscar nominees Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Shannon, brings to life the innovations and rivalries that would switch on the world.
Thomas Edison (Cumberbatch) knew he was a genius — and he made sure everyone else knew it, too. In 1879, he and his team conducted the first successful light bulb tests, declaring an end to night as people knew it. But the broad distribution of electricity posed a daunting challenge. Edison was convinced that direct current was the superior system, but entrepreneur George Westinghouse (Shannon, also appearing at this year’s Festival in The Shape of Water), Edison’s less flamboyant competitor, had a different idea.
Alongside the Oscar-hopefuls Cumberbatch and Shannon will be Nicholas Hoult as Nikola Tesla (stepping into the shoes of the late, great David Bowie who played Tesla in Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige”), Katherine Waterston (“Alien: Covenant”), Tom Holland (“Spider-Man: Homecoming”), Tuppence Middleton and Matthew Macfadyen.
“The Current War” is written by Michael Mitnick and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”). The film will premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival before opening on November 24th.
