Taglines: Only one could power the world.
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Thomas Edison and Michael Shannon as George Westinghouse, 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.
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Thomas Edison and Michael Shannon as George Westinghouse, 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.
The Current War[a] is a 2017 American historical drama film inspired by the 19th-century competition between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse over which electric power delivery system would be used in the United States (often referred to as the “war of the currents”). Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and written by Michael Mitnick, the film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Edison, Michael Shannon as Westinghouse, Nicholas Hoult as Nikola Tesla, and Tom Holland as Samuel Insull, alongside Katherine Waterston, Tuppence Middleton, Matthew Macfadyen and Damien Molony. Martin Scorsese and Steven Zaillian also serve as executive producers.
Announced in May 2012, Gomez-Rejon was confirmed in September 2015. Cumberbatch, Shannon, and Hoult joined the cast by October 2016, and filming began in England that December. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2017.
Co-produced by Harvey Weinstein and originally to be distributed by The Weinstein Company, the film was shelved and sold in November 2017 following the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations. It was eventually bought by Lantern Entertainment (the successor of TWC), who then sold the domestic distribution rights to 101 Studios. After discovering a final cut privilege clause in Scorsese’s contract, Gomez-Rejon convinced him to allow for reshoots and to trim ten minutes off the original version’s runtime, resulting in the film that was eventually released into theaters. The film was released in the United States on October 25, 2019.
The Current War (2019)
Directed by: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Starring: Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Matthew Macfadyen, Nicholas Hoult, Katherine Waterston, Tuppence Middleton, Michael Shannon, Faye Ormston, Emma Davies, Amy Marston
Screenplay by: Michael Mitnick
Production Design by: Jan Roelfs
Cinematography by: Chung-hoon Chung
Film Editing by: Justin Krohn, David Trachtenberg
Costume Design by: Michael Wilkinson
Set Decoration by: Lucy Eyre, Richard Roberts, Katie Scopes
Art Direction by: Stephen Bream, David Doran, R. Tyler Evans, Nic Pallace, Mark Scruton, Remo Tozzi
Music by: Danny Bensi, Volker Bertelmann, Saunder Jurriaans, Dustin O’Halloran
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some disturbing/violent images, and thematic elements.
Distributed by: The Weinstein Company
Release Date: October 4, 2019
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