The streets of London and its surrounding areas are currently playing host to the filming of the Thomas Edison drama, The Current War, which details the race between Edison and George Westinghouse to deliver the first marketable and sustainable electricity system.
In the electric chair as Thomas Edison is Doctor Strange (and Sherlock) actor, Benedict Cumberbatch, the subject of the very first look image to emerge from the studio behind the film, The Weinstein Company. Cumberbatch and his very stiff upper lip, seems to embody the very image of what we expect from a gentleman in the late 1800’s, in his dapper clothing to his trademark solemn look.
Benedict Cumberbatch isn’t the only impressive name on the cast list, he is also joined by Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals) as George Westinghouse. Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), Tom Holland (Captain America: Civil War, the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming), Matthew Macfadyen (‘Ripper Street’) and Tuppence Middleton (The Imitation Game) and Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: Apocalypse) who is set to play Nikola Tesla.
The Current War, which is directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) and written by Michael Mitnick (The Giver), also has Cumberbatch in a producer role alongside Timur Bekmanbetov, and Harvey Weinstein. The Current War is the third collaboration between The Weinstein Company and Basil Iwanyk in the space of a year, their previous projects together being Hotel Mumbai with Dev Patel and Armie Hammer and Wind River with Elizabeth Olsen and Jeremy Renner.
With the release of the image, Harvey Weinstein on The Current War said “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. We’re thrilled to start filming and to share this historical rivalry with audiences everywhere.”
Official Synopsis
Set in the late 1880s, THE CURRENT WAR details the rivalry between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse and the race to create a marketable and sustainable electricity system. Edison championed the use of a direct current for electric power distribution over an alternating current, which was backed by Westinghouse Electric and a host of European companies.
