From the 2017 Toronto Film Festival we present highlights from the press conference for Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s The Current War, written by Michael Mitnick. The film stars Katherine Waterston, Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Nicholas Hoult, Michael Shannon, Tuppence Middleton, and Matthew Macfadyen.

During the press conference the director talked about receiving the script and finding elements of himself and other relatable topics to explore within it. He talks about his discovery of the relatively unknown scientist Westinghouse, ‘seeing the humility in him, and watching as both men cross paths and one goes a little dark, and one loses his way’. Benedict Cumberbatch was also ‘in the dark’ about his role and of the character ‘as a companion to his invention.’

You can see the best of the press conference below, the film is released on the 5th of January in the UK and on the 19th of January in the US.

The Current War Press Conference

Movie Synopsis

THE CURRENT WAR is the epic story of the cutthroat competition between the greatest inventors of the industrial age over whose electrical system would power the new century. Backed by J.P. Morgan, Edison dazzles the world by lighting Manhattan. But Westinghouse, aided by Nikola Tesla, has seen fatal flaws in Edison’s direct current design. Igniting a war of currents, Westinghouse and Tesla bet everything on risky and dangerous alternating current. Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) and written by playwright Michael Mitnick (Sex Lives of our Parents), THE CURRENT WAR also stars Katherine Waterston, Nicholas Hoult, Tom Holland, Matthew Macfadyen, and Tuppence Middleton.